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LEAYES 



A MINISTERS POKTFOLIO. 



edinburgh : 

printed by ballantyne and company, 
Paul's work. 



LEAVES 



A MINISTER'S PORTFOLIO. 



eev. d: eraser, a.m. 

MINISTER OF THE FREE CHURCH, MONTREAL. 



LONDON: 

JAMES NISBET AND CO., 21 BERNERS STREET. 



MONTREAL : B. DAWSON. 



M.DCCC.LYIII. 



x: 



o*a 



f\o^ 






£>}/*/>, 1 



PREFACE. 



This little book contains no elaborate exposi- 
tion or treatise. I have grouped together 
sundry short papers on religious themes, medi- 
tative and illustrative, which may prove suit- 
able reading, as I trust, for a Sabbath afternoon 
or evening at home. Anxious to avoid pro- 
lixity, I have not attempted fully to discuss, 
far less to exhaust my topics. If one may 
borrow the title given by a great writer to a 
remarkable book, I have wished to supply 
"Aids to Eenection" — hints, suggestions, and 
outlines — rather than complete forms of truth. 
Here, therefore, is no great mass of matter, but 
a " little dinner of herbs." 

D. F. 

Montreal, 26th March 1858. 



CONTENTS. 



I. MEDITATION, 
II. THE ANALOGIES BETWEEN THE OLD AND 
CREATION, 

III. THE LOST GOD, . 

IV. THE SOUL ASLEEP, 

V. THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION OF THE WORLD, 
VI. THE DIVINE EDUCATION OF THE CHURCH, 
VII. THE ISOLATION OF THE HEART, 
VIII. THE MYSTERIES OF GOD, 
LX. THE ROD OF CHRIST'S STRENGTH, 
X. THE URIM AND THUMMIM, 
XI. OFFENCE IN CHRIST, . 
XII. THE PRE-EMINENCE OF JESUS CHRIST, 
XIII. A WORD IN SEASON TO THE WEARY, 
XIV. COMPENSATION, 
XV. LESSONS FROM WINTER, 
XVI. CHRIST AMONG THE WILD BEASTS, 
XVII. FORGETFULNESS, 
XVIII. LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN, 



PAGE 

1 



15 
19 
23 
30 
37 
43 
50 
54 
57 
67 
71 
76 
80 



93 



Vlll 



CONTENTS. 



XIX. SEVEN WONDERS, 
XX. HAND IN HAND, 
XXI. A LESSON IN SPIRITUAL WAR, 
XXII. THE HEALING OF HUMANITY, 

XXIII. THE VIVIFYING POWER OF THE GOSPEL, 

XXIV. THE UNBROKEN BONES OF JESUS, 
XXV. THE LORD'S VINEYARD, 

XXVI. THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR, 



PAGE 

97 
103 
107 
111 
116 
123 
128 
136 



A PLEASANT glimpse of "the heir of promise" we get 
from those simple words of Scripture, "Isaac went 
out to meditate in the field at the eventide/' * It is an 
example which we might profitably follow. Isaac, it 
is true, had advantages which we have not, for religious 
retirement and reflection. Heir to a rich inheritance, 
he was exempt from worldly care and the spirit-chafing 
struggles of modern busy life. He enjoyed rural quiet, 
in a country and a climate that invited to walk abroad. 
Withal he doubtless was largely endowed with those 
powers of abstraction, contemplation, and introversion, 
which have ever been characteristic of Oriental minds. 
The pattern of a man of so much leisure and peace 
does not deeply impress our bustling generation. 
Nevertheless it is just in such an age as this, that 
meditation is most needful to the religious mind; and 
to the neglect of this duty may safely be attributed the 
* Gen. xxiv. 63. 
A 



2 MEDITATION. 

light, fickle, and immature character of iffuch modern 
piety. 

Vain are the excuses offered for such neglect. To 
urge that we have no time for quiet meditation On the 
wonderful works and words of God, is virtually to say 
that we have no time to attend to the very objects for 
which time was given to us — the knowledge of God, 
and the edification of our own souls. To say that we 
have very little opportunity of retirement and quiet in 
our occupied urban life, is only to state a reason for our 
avoiding over-business, and studying to redeem time 
for godly exercise. To confess that we cannot sustain 
an interest in religious themes, is to betray our insuffi- 
cient conversion to God. The language of a devout 
heart is this, " My meditation of him shall be sweet : 
I will be glad in the Lord." * 

If the unquiet spirit of the times disadvantageously 
affects our religious habits of thought, we also, in these 
last days, have advantages for " increasing in the know- 
ledge of God" far superior to those enjoyed in the 
early ages of the world. In Creation we may see, more 
clearly than the ancients, the traces of Jehovah. In- 
heriting the studies and discoveries of all preceding 
times, we have a greatly increased acquaintance both 
with the vastness and with the minuteness of "the 
things that are made ;" and so have matter of medita- 
tion on the being, wisdom, and power of the Divine 

* Psalm civ. 34. 



MEDITATION. 3 

Maker, more ample than any former generation pos- 
sessed. In the observation of Providence, too, we 
possess a marked advantage. Century after century, 
the history of the Church and the world becomes more 
fruitful in instruction ; and he who studies history with 
a serious mind, and marks in our own time the course 
of life and of events, may discover abundant traces of a 
presiding God, and have solemn and " sweet meditation 
of Him " who moulds and fashions the lot of man, and 
ordains and controls all things after the counsel of His 
will. The like superiority of advantage have we in 
regard to God's Holy Word. In our hands is the 
completed canon of Scripture. Isaac had no Bible at 
all, and David had one of far less extent and clearness 
and fulness than we possess. Our pastures are wider 
and richer than the flock of God of old time enjoyed. 
And in all parts of the large field of Scripture — the 
field that the Lord has blessed — we, if spiritually- 
minded, may have sweet meditation on His perfections, 
and on His most good and holy wilL 

The Lord Jesus Christ, the Leader and Pattern of 
Christians, was much given to meditation, and loved 
communion with the Father in heaven. He was much 
abroad in grassy solitudes — in corn-fields — on high 
mountains — on the shore and on the bosom of the 
Galilean Lake — and everywhere looked on nature as 
an expression of Deity, and a vast parable of spiritual 
truths. He also mused on Providence, and taught His 



4 MEDITATION. 

disciples to do likewise, to the comfort and confirma- 
tion of their souls : — " Consider the ravens : for they 
neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse 
nor barn ; and God feedeth them : how much more are 
ye better than the fowls ? . . . Consider the lilies how 
they grow : they toil not, they spin not ; and yet I say 
unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed 
like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, 
which is to-day in the field, and to-morrow is cast into 
the oven; how much more will he clothe you, ye of 
little faith V* * Our Lord also meditated much on God's 
written Word. His human mind grew in wisdom and 
knowledge by His familiarity with the Word — that 
" volume of the book" in which it was written of Him. 
And every one must observe, that in His conversations 
with the twelve, and His replies to the rulers and the 
people, quotations from, and references to the Old Tes- 
tament abound. This command of the Scriptures the 
man Christ Jesus acquired by study and reflection. In 
perfection He combined thought and duty, meditation 
and activity, and was at once the most occupied and 
the most devout Being that ever dwelt among men. 

The Christians of the present day appear to fail in 
meditation, more than they do in activity. But it is 
unsafe to neglect, in any particular, the example Christ 
has given. 

Lack of meditation keeps the mind always poor, the 
* Luke xii. 24, 27, 28. 



MEDITATION. 5 

bulk of what is read or heard being suffered to slip 
away unnoticed, and making no part of the permanent 
possessions of the soul. There are many who have 
enjoyed such advantages that they ought to be teachers 
rather than learners, who yet have their minds unfur- 
nished, and their thoughts loose and scattered, just 
because they have never formed the habit of pondering 
well. They receive, but they do not retain knowledge, 
or apprehend the scope, beauty, order, and mutual con- 
nexion of great truths. Many a valuable thought they 
have had, but the thought is transient, and leaves no 
lasting impress on the soul — like sheet-lightning play- 
ing on the horizon, then passing into darkness, or the 
glance of a sunbeam on a dark wave of the sea. 

The subject also intimately affects the progress of 
piety. All the powers and virtues of the " new heart" 
pine and are enfeebled, unless there is time given to 
meditation with watching and prayer. Faith fails, and 
hope grows dim, unless we dwell on the " precious pro- 
mises/' and on the faithfulness of the promising God. 
And love waxes cold unless our hearts muse on Him 
who " first loved us." To use the language of Jeremy 
Taylor, " This is a very great cause of the dryness and 
expiration of men s devotion, because our souls are so 
little refreshed with the waters and holy dews of medi- 
tation. We go to our prayers by chance, or order, or 
by determination of accidental occurrences, and we 
recite them as we read a book ; and sometimes we are 



MEDITATION, 






sensible of the duty, and a flash of lightning makes the 
room bright, and our prayers end, and the lightning 
is gone, and we as dark as ever. We draw our water 
from standing pools, which never are filled but with 
sudden showers, and, therefore, we are dry so often ; 
whereas, if we could draw water from the fountains of 
our Saviour, and draw them through the channel of 
diligent and prudent meditations, our devotion would 
be a continual current, and safe against the barrenness 
of frequent droughts/' * 

In every wise and pious heart religious musings 
kindle a solemn joy. It is " sweet" to meditate on the 
Loving and Holy One — 

" Sweet on Thy faithfulness to rest, 
Whose love can never end ; 
Sweet on Thy covenant of grace 
For all things to depend ! 

" Sweet, in the confidence of faith, 
To trust Thy truth divine ; 
Sweet to lie passive in Thy hands, 
And have no will but Thine ! " 

The heathen poets fabled that the top of Olympus, 
the seat of the gods, was always quiet and serene. And 
this we may say, not in fable but in truth, of the top 
of the mount of meditation, where the believer is with 
God, and comes even to His seat. It is not easy to climb 
the hill. A hundred distracting thoughts, and worldly 

* Life of Christ, Part I. Disc. iii. 



MEDITATION. 7 

cares, and devilish temptations, impede our way; but 
if we persevere, our meditation shall be sweet ; on the 
top of the mount we shall say, " ' Lord, it is good for us 
to be here/ for we behold Thy glory" — a cloud hides 
the earth from us, and we have a prospect upward, so 
clear and calm, that we could almost think ourselves in 
heaven. 



THE ANALOGIES BETWEEN THE 



II. 

®{je Jawtops Miam t\t ®Ib anfo % fto totfa. 

On the first page of the Bible we read of the old crea- 
tion. A new creation is mentioned in other parts of 
Holy Writ, as wrought upon the souls of men. We think 
that in the order of the old, the course of the new may 
be traced. Tor our purpose it matters not whether the 
six days of the first chapter of Genesis are understood 
to be ordinary periods of twenty-four hours, in which, 
ages after the matter of the universe had been called 
into existence, this world was arranged, and furnished, 
and garnished for the habitation of man ; or whether 
they be supposed to express long periods of time, cor- 
responding to the " geological periods " of science, re- 
vealed to Moses in a sublime vision, and by him opti- 
cally described — the fading light and the growing light 
of the successive dioramic scenes making an evening 
and a morning to the eye of the seer, and the divisions 
of time being therefore called by him "six days." 
Whatever be the interpretation of the term " days," our 
use of the Mosaic narrative is the same — to mark in it 



OLD AND THE NEW CEEATION. 9 

a picture, or rather a sketch, of the order of that in- 
ward creation which " avails in Christ Jesus" to eternal 
life. 

Before any change, natural or spiritual, there must 
needs be a groundwork laid. Now, before the changes 
of the six days began, a basis of change existed. " In 
the beginning God created the heaven and the earth/' 
Before the change of regeneration begins, a basis is also 
laid in the sensitive and moral nature of man, the in- 
telligence, the conscience, the emotions, and the will, 
whereon God's grace and truth are to work mightily. 
" By Him, and for Him, we are and were created/' 

Where, however, we might look for beauty and order, 
lo ! there is chaos, disorder, with darkness on the deep. 
" The earth was without form, and void ; and darkness 
was upon the face of the deep." No gray cloud was 
there, nor blue sky, nor green field, nor silver sea ; no 
shores, no vales, no mountains. What a figure this of 
the dark and disordered soul of man before his new 
creation ! He has no calm peace, nor lively hope, nor 
clear apprehension of spiritual religion — tossed by 
surging waves of fear and doubt— restless, dissatisfied — 
chaos and darkness in his breast ! 

Had the world been left to itself, it would, so far as 
we know, have continued in perpetual chaos, having no 
inherent power to mould, and vivify, and adorn itself. 
But lo! a Power of God was there. The life-giving 
" Spirit moved — brooded — on the face of the waters." 



10 THE ANALOGIES BETWEEN THE 

Thus there began to be warmth, with some token of a 
happier time; but as yet there was no light — darkness 
hung upon the deep. So, on the soul that God is about 
to regenerate, there is a moving of the Spirit, with 
solemn brooding wing — there is an awe from the Lord, 
a beginning of conviction, before any distinct ray of 
light has come to guide, and gladden, and transform. 

The time had now arrived for God's good and beau- 
tiful work in the heaven and the earth. Then the first 
gift He bestowed, the first influence He introduced, 
was light — commanded to appear in words often noted 
for their sublimity, " And God said, Light be ; and 
light was." 

" Let there be light, said God; and forthwith light 
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure, 
Sprung from the deep." 

Who can imagine the startling change? On the 
great chaos light arose — all things began to be new. 
In like manner, God begins His new creation of the 
soul, by causing light to arise. The ignorance and 
self-deception which pertain to the state of darkness 
are rolled away, and truths break on the mind as they 
really are. The " Shorter Catechism " rightly teaches, 
that the beginnings of " effectual calling " are the con- 
viction of sin and misery, and the enlightenment of the 
mind in the knowledge of Christ. And the words in 
which the apostle Paul describes his own spiritual en- 
lightenment contain a distinct reference to the original 



OLD AND THE NEW CKEATION. 1 1 

Divine gift of light to the world. " God, who com- 
manded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined 
in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the 
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ/' * 

At the close of the first day or period known, the 
light shone on a chaos still. It was on the second day 
that order began to reign. A firmament appeared, and 
the waters were divided — watery vapours above, in 
thick, massy clouds, and waters beneath, covering the 
earth ; for as yet no dry land was seen. Surely a 
change analogous to this takes place in the soul that 
God has enlightened — a new order begins where chaos 
was — the waters are divided — there is a separation of 
the higher affinities and capacities of the human spirit 
from those that are lower and more earthly. Whereas 
all hitherto was on one level, now there is elevation and 
aspiration in the character ; there is a firmament in 
the soul — a change (if one may so speak) of its atmo- 
spheric conditions, so that there is a sky or a heaven as 
well as an earth. The unregenerate man has only an 
earth; but the regenerate has also a sky — a nether and 
an upper department of character — an earth and a 
heaven in the breast. 

The third day continued the progress of order and 
revealed the dry land, and covered it with abundant 
specimens of vegetable life. Such also is the progress 
of the new creation in the mind and heart of man. A 

* 2 Cor. iv. 6. 



12 THE ANALOGIES BETWEEN THE 

new and various beauty is given to the character ; 
where there was barrenness, there comes fertility ; where 
there was nothing, life appears. Now is there tender 
grass of devotion, with the sweet herbs of pious desire, 
and the fruits, varied after their kind, of a new and 
loving obedience. 

The fourth day disclosed to the eye of the seer " the 
lights in the firmament/' which thenceforth were to 
illuminate the earth — the sun by day, and moon by 
night, and the stars also. It was the period of the 
organisation of light. So, in the continued progress 
of the soul's new creation, there ensues an habitual 
reign of light — light that may, indeed, be obscured 
thereafter by passing clouds of error or unbelief, but 
that can never be quenched in thick and hopeless 
gloom. Every man in Christ Jesus is a child of light, 
illuminated from above with light to rule the day, and 
light to rule the night. If he has the bright sunshine 
of God's favour in the day of success, he is not left in 
his night of sorrow without the gentle moon of conso- 
lation and the glistening stars of promise. 

When the world was lit up with its heavenly lamps, 
it was made more and more to abound in creatures of 
life. This was the event of the fifth day — the great de- 
velopment of organic life. To this there is an obvious 
parallel in the increasing vitality of the new-created 
soul, which has received the light of life, and in all its 
character and powers becomes more alive unto God. 



OLD AND THE NEW CREATION. 13 

The enlightened Christian has life more and more abun- 
dantly, develops new energies, and, in all the higher 
relations of his being, gives signs of new activity. 

The same development of life continued on the sixth 
day : then came Adam in the image of God, with 
dominion over all the earth, and all that lived on its 
surface. So with the soul which God has made the 
subject of His new creation ; when it is enlightened, 
ordered, vivified, Christ the second Adam, the new 
man, the image of the invisible God, is formed within. 
This crowns the work of grace. " Christ in you, the 
hope of glory/' takes possession of the soul, has do- 
minion over all its parts and all its living powers, is 
the acknowledged Monarch of the character, the wel- 
come Euler of the clean heart and right spirit that God 
has created within. 

In this the mighty change is complete. As in nature 
so in grace, the Lord will not at any point of imperfec- 
tion forsake the work of His hands. He looks on His 
accomplished work, and behold it is very good. Then, 
as from Him came all the power that wrought such 
effects, to Him redounds all the praise. What hath 
God wrought ! Every instance of His new-creating 
grace glorifies His name, gladdens His militant Church 
on earth, and His triumphant hosts in heaven. Then 
the morning stars sing together, and all the sons of God 
shout for joy. 

The figure of a man working and resting is employed 



14 THE ANALOGIES BETWEEN THE OLD, ETC. 

in Scripture to denote the procedure of Almighty God 
at the first creation. " God rested from all his work 
which he had made." After the same manner, the work 
of the new creation issues in sweet sabbatic rest. God, 
having " fulfilled all the good pleasure of his good- 
ness, and the work of faith with power/'* rests in His 
love, watching over the continued moral elevation and 
culture of the renewed heart. The people of God cease 
from their works as God did from His, and enter into 
rest. Then cometh the end — the new creation is con- 
summate — Grace, grace unto it ! It opened in Chaos, it 
ends in Paradise. It opened in a confused and dark 
abyss, it ends in Eden, a well-watered garden of " plea- 
sures, at God's right hand for evermore." 
*2 Thess. i. 11. 



THE LOST GOD. 15 



III. 

Lost soul — lost peace — lost hope — lost innocence — lost 
happiness — lost heaven ; these are the terms often used 
to express the woe of man. A view of that woe, more 
sad and awful still, is suggested by the words, " a lost 
God/' "When sin entered and made its home in the 
human breast, God departed — withdrew the strength 
and joy of His presence from the seed of evil-doers. 
Not only is man lost to God, God is lost to man — a 
stranger to his thoughts. It is true enough, that the 
human race has not been, in any place or time, devoid 
of religious ideas and instincts ; but such theologies and 
rituals as men have devised only serve to shew how 
darkened are their minds — how utterly they have lost 
the true light of God. They feel after Him, and know 
not how nor where to find Him. In the worship of 
many gods, and goddesses, and demigods, the heathen 
nations have sought to pacify their own accusing con- 
sciences, and to connect themselves with the unseen 
Infinitude ; but they could not reach to the Most High, 



16 THE LOST GOD. 

or by searching find Him out. The imaginations of 
philosophers, priests, and people, born in the most 
palmy days of heathenism, were vain, and their foolish 
hearts were darkened. The Gentiles, as an apostle 
affirms, had "no hope, and were without God in the 
world." * 

Alas ! what more or better can we say of many in 
modern Christendom ? This darkness is on their path, 
even as on the paths of the heathen. God may be 
honoured with the lips, but He is outcast from the 
thoughts and affections of a wicked and perverse gene- 
ration. Now, it is in the tone of life and conversation 
that this fearful fact is betrayed. The " course of this 
world" moves without any serious reference to God. 
The current of life flows on without religion, which, 
indeed, is regarded, if not quite as an intrusion and 
burden, still as an exceptional and secondary thing. 
Business and study, toil and pleasure, politics and 
literature of this world — all are without God. The 
mind of man is averse to humble recognition of a 
Divine Being, or resignation to a Divine will. Busy 
thoughts people his brain, but no devout thought of 
God ! Warm affections glow in his heart, but no thrill 
of love to God ! 

The life of the natural man may, indeed, be carefully 
guarded from all stains of gross, disreputable vice; and 
yet it lies open to the charge of utter ungodliness. God 
* Eph. ii. 12. 



THE LOST GOD. 

is unknown, absent, lost. Earth seems the only reality, 
while heaven is regarded as a shadowy land, and the 
existence of heaven's Holy One little better than a 
shadowy imagination. This is the practical atheism 
which abounds : men live as they list ; they are " with- 
out God in the world." This is the great woe of the 
human race. Men, so long as they continue irreligious, 
must suffer disorder and misery, for they have lost the 
Supreme Order and the Supreme Source of happiness. 
They have the name of God, the Word of God, and the 
house of God ; and yet they have no God. 

This is all the more shameful to man, since the sur- 
rounding creation, animate and inanimate, is not with- 
out God. The heavens declare His glory ; the firmament 
shews His handywork. The earth displays His riches; 
so does the " great and wide sea/' The countless crea- 
tures that people the land, and air, and waters, wait on 
God who gives them their meat in due season, and, in 
the ways appointed to them, render praise to Him. 
The stars in the sky, and the little flowers of the field, 
unite in witnessing for God. 

" The headlong torrents, rapid and profound, 
The softer floods that lead the humid maze 
Along the vale, and the majestic main, 
Sound His stupendous praise." 

There is not the same disjunction between God and 
creation, as there is between God and the chief of that 
creation, man. But here is the poignant misery. It 

B 



18 THE LOST GOD. 

is man who was formed and qualified for communion 
with God; and now he has lost all — he has lost time 
and eternity, he has lost his better self — since he has 
lost God. 

" Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye 
upon him while he is near." * How has the lost God 
drawn near? Not with a voice of terror, shaking 
earth and heaven — not with thick clouds, hailstones, 
and coals of fire — not with sharp arrows or a glittering 
sword. His ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts 
as our thoughts. He came in a holy babe at Beth- 
lehem, nursed in a virgin's arms. He came as a gentle 
Teacher and Healer of men, walking to and fro through 
Judea and Galilee. He came very nigh to us in Jesus, 
the crucified Man of Calvary. At the cross God may 
be found, the lost Jehovah is near. 

* Isa. lv, 6. 



THE SOUL ASLEEP. 19 



IV. 

The soul of the sinner is asleep. The spiritual powers 
and susceptibilities are deadened and benumbed. How- 
ever awake and alert in earthly relations, the whole 
character is lethargic toward God and His eternal truth. 
The man who abides in sin has eyes but sees not, ears 
but hears not, neither does he understand with his 
heart. He is like one overtaken by intolerable drowsi- 
ness, who sleeps, amidst the snows of St Bernard, a 
quiet but fatal sleep. 

He who sleeps is oblivious of the past, and ignorant 
of the present. So is the sinner — forgetful of the good 
impressions of days gone by, and heedless of the value 
of the time that now is — not knowing it to be " the ac- 
cepted time." His sleep is not altogether undisturbed. 
Natural conscience sometimes alarms, and the sleeping 
man turns and tosses on his bed ; at times appears al- 
most certain to awake, almost persuaded to be a Chris- 
tian. But he mutters, "A little more sleep, a little 
more slumber, a little more folding of the hands to 



20 THE SOUL ASLEEP. 

sleep/' and stretches himself again upon the bed of 
irreligious indifference and sloth. There may be dreams 
of great activity, but still there is no movement; or a 
mere somnambulism, an outward mechanical activity, 
as of one who walks in sleep, while the spirit within is 
still torpid and insensible. 

Some awake, from spiritual sleep only to perish. 
Eefusing to be wise in time, they discover their danger, 
with a start, when it is too late to seek salvation. In 
the very agony of their awakening they are lost. So 
is it with one who sleeps securely in his cabin at sea, 
and the ship suddenly founders, and he is drowned 
before he can even reach the deck. 

" He wakes at the vessel's sudden roll, 
And the rush of waters is in his soul." 

So it is with the somnambulist, who is comparatively 
safe while sleep continues, but may perish in the mo- 
ment of sudden awaking. A young girl walked one 
night in sleep, came out through a window upon the 
house-top, and walked up and down the sloping roof 
with fearless step. No one knew how to rescue her 
from the fearful peril. Once and again she walked to 
the very edge of the roof, still asleep, and appeared to 
look over the verge. At that moment a light from an 
opposite window flashed across her eyes ; she woke 
affrighted, and with a scream fell lifeless to the street. 
Such a waking of fear may await many who now walk 



THE SOUL ASLEEP. 21 

gaily and fearlessly through the world, locked in spirit- 
ual sleep. 

There is a better awakening when the soul hears 
and obeys the effectual call of God — an awakening, not 
of fear but of faith — not of despair but of hope — not 
of horror but of joy and love. To know this by expe- 
rience is the privilege of the sinner saved by grace ; to 
awake and arise — to be startled in conviction, and to 
be raised into " newness of life." 

Alas ! the soul of a saint, while on earth, may fall 
asleep. Drowsy influences creep over the Church, and 
overcome many that were truly awakened and converted 
to God. The three disciples who slept in the garden 
of Gethsemane are but sad types of Christians in every 
age, who cannot watch one hour. At times a languor 
or faintness creeps over pious hearts — the mind becomes 
torpid and forgetful, and its former zeal decays. On 
the bed of overmuch security the unwatchful Christian 
stretches himself, and soon falls fast asleep. And the 
Church stands still because of the self -pleasing lethargy 
of her members. 

It is high time to awake out of sleep — to be alive to 
all the great interests of Immanuers kingdom, and to 
be intent on the hope and joy of His appearing. It is 
time to arise to the activities of the day of grace, and 
watch for the splendours of the day of glory. " Watch- 
man ! what of the night ? " Our prophetic watchman, 
in the "burden of Dumah," answered, "The morning 



22 THE SOUL ASLEEP. 

cometh, and also the night/' * But the apostolic watch- 
man, in the service of Christ and the Church, cheerily 
answers, " The night is far spent, the day is at hand/'f 
These words ring like a morning bell, bidding us wake 
and work. All things begin to stir — the heavy clouds 
rise — the shadows flee away — the sun will soon be up — 

" The shining day, that burnish'd plays 
On rocks, and hills, and towers, and "wand'ring streams, 
High gleaming from afar ! " 

Would to God that the people of Christ were more 
wakeful than they are, and more sensible of the sweet- 
ness and dignity of living in and to their Lord! Is 
our salvation, in its final triumphs, drawing nearer 
every day? It is an argument for an increasing ardour 
of soul. As the runner strains every nerve and limb 
when he nears the end of the course, and the goal is in 
his eye — as the sailor forgets the hardships of his long 
and weary way across the sea, and works the ship with 
new zeal and sleepless care so soon as he scents the 
land breeze, or sees afar on the horizon the long ex- 
pected shore — so should we, having hope in Christ, 
increase our diligence, hold ourselves on the alert, and 
press into the kingdom of God. So let us watch, and 
walk, and work, and wrestle, and pray, as those who 
are nearing the "inheritance of the saints in light/' 
and would not lose it for worlds. 

* Isa. xxi. 11, 12. f Rom. xiii. 12. 



THE THKEEFOLD CONVICTION OF THE WOELD. 23 



V. 

%\t % \xnU\ €tttiMm jtf i\t IMr. 

The Holy Ghost, the Comforter or Paraclete, is sent 
to the Church, but His work is not confined to the 
hearts of believers. When He is come, He operates, as 
the Lord Jesus foretold, on " the world/' convincing 
it "of sin, righteousness, and judgment/'* 

The world is preyed upon by sin, and groans under 
its weight ; yet indulges it, and dislikes to be reproved. 
Eestraints there are for the prevention of flagrant 
offences — restraints of law, of conscience, of public 
opinion, and of self-respect. Yet by none of these is 
the world convinced of sin. It may condemn crime 
and bewail misery, but it has no sense of the base and 
dreadful character of sin as committed against the 
Throne of God and of the Lamb. The soul of the 
world is not pierced with contrition, nor the stiff neck 
of its will taught to bow, without the action upon 
it of a power from on high — the power of the Holy 
Ghost. 

* John xvi. 8-11. 



24 THE THKEEFOLD CONVICTION OF THE WOELD. 

Our Saviour, in speaking of the conviction of sin, 
avoided vague general charges, and specified the sin of 
unbelief. Human law can take no cognisance of this — 
natural conscience is slow to perceive any great evil in 
it; and were it not for the demonstration of its wicked- 
ness by the Divine Spirit, it might pass for no sin at 
all, whereas it is a root and mother of all sins. Unbe- 
lief is divinely exposed in its true character, as a sin the 
most base, committed against the love of God and of 
His dear Son — the most ruinous, as rejecting the very 
remedy for ruin offered in the gospel — and the most 
comprehensive, as including all blindness and hardness 
of heart, barring out the light of God's countenance and 
the sweetness of His salvation. 

As the world knows not its sin, so it fails to form 
any true conception of righteousness. .All the world's 
wisdom, before the descent of the " Comforter," knew 
nothing of this. Philosophy, poetry, the modes of 
religion, and the aspects of life, all were unable to teach 
or exemplify righteousness. The Divine law, indeed, 
prescribed the will of the perfectly Eighteous One, and 
rebuked all unrighteousness of men. Yet they would 
not learn — the world was not convinced. 

The Comforter has come to shew righteousness to 
the world; not its own righteousness, for it has none, 
but the righteousness of Him who has "gone to the 
Father." And as the sin of the world has been its 
want of faith, so it can obtain righteousness only 



THE THKEEFOLD CONVICTION OF THE WORLD. 2 

through faith. Unbelief and unrighteousness go to- 
gether ; so do faith and righteousness. 

Excellent are the words of the late Archdeacon Hare : 
— " As the sin of which the Comforter came to con- 
vince the world, is of a totally different kind from 
every thing that the world calls sin — as it is a sin 
which the world, so long as it was left to itself, never 
dreamed of as such, nor does any heart, left to itself, 
so regard it — while yet it is the one great all-in-all of 
sin, the sin by which men are cut off and utterly 
estranged from God, the sin through which they grow 
downward toward hell instead of growing upward 
toward heaven ; — so, on the other hand, is the righteous- 
ness of which the Comforter came to convince the world, 
totally different in kind from every thing that the world 
accounts righteousness — a righteousness such as the 
world, in the highest raptures of its imagination, never 
dreamed of; a righteousness, moreover, by which the 
effect of sin is done away, and man, hitherto cut off 
and estranged from God, is reunited and set at one with 
Him. The Comforter came not to convince the world 
of its own righteousness ; one might as fitly convince 
a cavern at midnight of light. The Comforter is the 
Spirit of truth, and can only convince of the truth. 
But the world's righteousness is a lie, hollow as a 

whited sepulchre, tawdry as a puppet in a show 

Christ's going to the Father was indeed the fullest, 
completest, most damnatory of all proofs of the world's 



26 THE THEEEFOLD CONVICTION OF THE WOELD. 

unrighteousness and iniquity. It was the proof that 
Him, whom the world condemned, God justified ; that 
the stone, which the builders rejected, God made the 
Head-stone of the corner ; that Him, whom the world 
had lifted up on high on a cross of shame, God lifted 
up on high to a throne of glory in the heavens ; that 
Him, whom the world cast out, nailing Him between 
two thieves, God took to Himself, and set Him in the 
heavenly places far above all principality and power. 
But, while Christ's going to the Father was a proof of 
the unrighteousness and desperate wickedness of the 
world, it was also a proof of righteousness — namely, of 
His own pure and perfect and spotless righteousness. 
It was a proof that He was the Holy One who could 
not see corruption. It was a proof that he could not 
possibly be holden by death any more than it would be 
possible to hold the sun by a chain of darkness ; and 
therefore that, as Death, the ghastly shadow which ever 
follows inseparably at the heels of Sin, fled from His 
presence, He must needs be also without sin. It was a 
proof that, while the world ' desired a murderer to be 
granted to them,' He whom they denied was the Holy 
One and the Just." * 

To these sentences we need add nothing. The Com- 
forter has come to demonstrate to the world the 
righteousness of the ascended Saviour — righteousness 
alike in His personal character and in His public 

* Mission of the Comforter, pp. 129, 130. American edition. 



TEE THREEFOLD CONVICTION OF THE WORLD. 27 

representative position as the Substitute and Surety of 
sinners. He is " the end of the law for righteousness 
to every believer" — righteousness to clothe, as with 
white raiment, those who now pine and shiver in the 
nakedness of their sins. 

The world also needs to be convinced of judgment — 
to feel that God cannot be mocked — that under His 
government evil has no impunity — that the evil will 
inevitably be condemned and cast out, while the good 
shall prevail and triumph. The world has not, of its 
own wisdom, reached this conviction. No terrors of 
Divine or human law — no miseries of the vicious — no 
testimonies of past history, have sufficed to convince 
the world of judgment. But the Holy Spirit convinces 
by this evidence — " The prince of this world is judged/' 
The prince of this world is no rightful sovereign, but a 
usurper and tyrant — "the spirit that worketh in the 
children of disobedience/' His commands are these — 
" Thou shalt have as many gods as thou wilt, or no god 
at all, according to thy pleasure. Thou shalt have 
images, and any mode of worship that thou wilt, pro- 
vided only that Christian simplicity be corrupted. Thou 
shalt take the name of God in vain. Thou shalt break 
the Sabbath. Thou shalt dishonour thy parents. Thou 
shalt kill. Thou shalt commit adultery. Thou shalt 
steal. Thou shalt lie. Thou shalt covet/' Such are the 
ten commands of the prince of this world. Especially 
he opposes himself to Christ, the Prince of Life ; and 



28 THE THEEEFOLD CONVICTION OF THE WOELD. 

as God has uttered a New Testament command — " That 
we believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ" — the 
prince and god of this world has dared to utter a 
counter-command, saying, " Ye shall not believe ! " 

But this prince is judged. The whole manifestation 
of Christ, in His birth, in His holy life, and in His mira- 
cles, especially His mastery over unclean spirits, was 
a discomfiture of the prince of this world. At last, 
the lifting up of the Eedeemer to die — which seemed 
to be a victory for the Evil One — proved to be his utter 
defeat. "Through death, Christ destroyed him that 
had the power of death, that is, the devil." * It is too 
true that the prince of this world is still at work 
in the hearts and homes of men ; though judged, 
he is not yet bound, as he is to be ; but the contest 
between good and ill is virtually decided. The Seed of 
the woman has bruised the serpent's head. 

Now, to minds convinced of the sin of unbelief and of 
the righteousness of Him who has gone to the Father, 
the Holy Spirit carries home this lesson also — that the 
prince of this world is judged, and that all who walk 
after the " course of this world " are included in the 
same condemnation. 

On these three points — sin, righteousness, and judg- 
ment — the world now, as much as ever, needs strong 
and deep convictions. Eeligious sermons, and books 
that please the taste, but do not search and enlighten the 
consciences of men, are preached and written in vain. 
* Heb. ii. 14. 



THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION OF THE WORLD. 29 

Preaching and writing should be faithful and fearless, 
and prayer should be made continually for the arresting 
and convicting operations of the Holy Ghost. 

It is interesting to observe that conviction is attri- 
buted to the Comforter ; so has it comfort, if not 
wrapped in its bosom, certainly close upon its steps. 
Are we convinced of unbelief ? There is no cause to 
despair. Christ freely pardons all who truly repent of 
that sin, and grants His grace to every one who says, 
with sincerity, " Lord, I believe ; help thou mine un- 
belief." The conviction of righteousness carries conso- 
lation too. Jesus is " the Lord our righteousness ;" 
and if we cast away the sin of unbelief, His righteous- 
ness is ours by faith. The conviction of judgment, too, 
— the judgment of the prince of this world — has strong 
consolation for those who desire deliverance from his 
cruel yoke. As the conviction of righteousness con- 
nects with the justification of believers, so the convic- 
tion of judgment connects with their sanctification. 
They are tempted to evil by the prince of this world, 
and are at times so sore beset that their hearts begin 
to fail, and they almost despair of ever being holy. 
What comfort, then, in the conviction that the prince 
of this world is judged ! The king of the house of 
bondage is defeated. Jehovah hath judged him. Jesus 
hath destroyed his power in the Eed Sea. The friends 
of Jesus shall partake of all His victory. " The God 
of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly/'* 

* Rom. xvi. 20. 



30 THE DIVINE EDUCATION OF THE CHITKCH. 



VI. 

The education of the Church has been gradual. Long 
time she was treated as "under age/' placed under 
restraints, subjected to a minute ritualistic training, 
taught by line on line, precept on precept, initiated by- 
slow degrees into " the mysteries of God." It is true 
that piety of disposition was attainable in a very high 
degree, and actually attained, in the days of old ; but 
even in pious minds religious knowledge was limited, 
for the Church was yet in her elementary education. 
Many things might have been told to her which were 
not told, for the Lord perceived that she could not bear 
them then. 

When the Old Testament education was fulfilled, and 
devout persons — alas ! too few — were " waiting for the 
consolation of Israel/' John the Baptist appeared to 
prepare the way of the Lord. Then Jesus came, ac- 
knowledged even by such a one as Nicodemus to be a 
"teacher come from God ;" and immediately the higher 
and more spiritual education of the Church began. In 



THE DIVINE EDUCATION OF THE CHUECH. 31 



the sermon on the mount — in the parables — in His 
answers to His enemies — in those occasional sayings of 
His wisdom and love which distilled as the drops of dew 
— and in the discourse delivered after the Last Supper, 
the Lord Christ gave to the Church an immense supply 
of new thoughts, of truly Divine conceptions. Yet the 
disciples who heard Him were slow of heart, and the 
multitude still more dull and prejudiced. Accordingly, 
the Master saw meet not to express all the truth, or 
bearings of the truth, but to inclose much in figures 
and enigmatic sayings, not to be understood till after 
His death and resurrection. So long as His followers 
were children in understanding, Christ fed them with 
milk, not with strong meat. With calm penetration 
of their mental and moral state, He said, " I have yet 
many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them 
now." * 

The unfinished education of His Church our Lord 
has committed to the Holy Spirit. " When he, the 
Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all 
truth." -f- This continues from age to age — the Spirit, 
who abides with the disciples, ever developing and 
revealing more and more truth out of the Word, 
bringing latent or neglected doctrines to the vivid ap- 
prehension of Christian minds, carrying forward to 
perfection the Divine education of the Church. 

It cannot be denied that gross heresies have arisen, 

* John xvi, 12, 13. + Ibid. 



32 THE DIVINE EDUCATION OF. THE CHTJECH. 

and that the Church has again and again lost hold of 
truths once firmly grasped. But gross heresies have 
never been accepted by minds that were spiritually 
taught, and truths lost by Christendom have been lost 
only for a time. The history of great doctrines amply 
sustains the general statement, that the Church is 
educated by degrees. These doctrines all are inclosed 
in the Bible, but did not at once shine out before the 
eye of the Church. The Christian Church could not 
bear them all at once — had not sufficient breadth of 
capacity, or ripeness of spiritual judgment. Accord- 
ingly, they have been evolved, one by one, generally in 
connexion with severe controversies, and through the 
instrumentality of individual men, to whom the Spirit 
gave a special insight into particular truths. Thus the 
calling of the G-entiles into the fellowship of the Church 
was not apparent to the minds of the first disciples till 
it was divinely revealed to Simon Peter, and there- 
after clearly established by the arguments of Paul, 
and by the decision of the Christian Council of Jeru- 
salem .* In like manner the doctrines of the Holy 
Trinity, of original sin, sovereign grace, the atonement, 
and justification by faith, though easily pointed out by 
us on the pages of the Bible, were not so clearly seen 
there from the beginning. But the Spirit of truth en- 
abled and employed Athanasius to bring out the teaching 
of Scripture regarding the Tri-Unity of God — Augus- 

* Acts x., xi., xiii., xv. 



THE DIVINE EDUCATION OF THE CHURCH. 33 

tine to expound and establish the sovereign grace of God 
and the original sin of man — Anselin to elucidate the 
nature and necessity of our Lord's propitiatory sacrifice 
— and Martin Luther to revive, with power, the ancient 
doctrine of the apostles regarding justification by faith. 
The Divine education of the individual follows the 
same general rule. The soul cannot bear to know all 
truths at once ; and he who thinks he knows all, knows 
nothing yet as he ought to know. The mind of the 
true Christian must never lose its docility; for only on 
the docile and submissive mind the most sublime 
truths are evolved, in due order and course, out of 
Holy Writ, by the Spirit of truth sent down from 
heaven. New light falls on old truths ; and others, 
never perceived before, shine out to view, often for the 
first time, in some night of weeping — 

" Night brings out stars, so sorrow shews us truths." 

The chief function of the educating, enlightening 
Spirit of truth is to shew " the things of Christ," in 
which are included all our Lord's personal excellences 
and saving qualifications. These are declared in the 
Bible, but are never deeply known or appreciated until 
shewn by the Holy Ghost. He discovers Christ, in His 
person, as very God and very man ; in His Messiahship, 
His love, His power, His gentleness, His zeal, His sin- 
bearing, His victory, His resurrection, ascension, inter- 
cession, and coming again to judge the quick and dead. 
c 



34 THE DIVINE EDUCATION OF THE CHUKCH. 

These things are not taught at once, and once for all. 
The Spirit leads us farther and farther into the know- 
ledge of Christ, while we undergo the discipline and 
training of an actual religious life. Are we crushed 
under a sense of sin ? He shews us the wounds of our 
Propitiation on the cross, and the power of our Advo- 
cate on high. Are we in sickness ? He shews us the 
grace and skill of our good Physician. Are we in 
tribulation? He shews us the faithful Promiser and 
unfailing Friend. Are we drooping or downcast in 
heart ? He bids us lift our eyes and see the Beloved 
leaping on the mountains, hasting to our help. Are 
we at the Lord's Supper? He enables us to discern 
the Lord's body, and to know our Master in the break- 
ing of bread. Are we on our deathbed? He shews 
us the Conqueror of death, and bids us hear His voice, 
saying, " Pear not ; I am the First and the Last : I am 
he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive 
for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hades and 
of death/'* 

There is yet more to be said regarding the " things 
of Christ" shewn by the Spirit of truth. Thus sj:>ake 
the Saviour : " All things that the Father hath are 
mine : therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and 
shew unto jou/'-f The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost 
are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and 
glory; nevertheless, they are described in Scripture as 

* Rev. i. 17, 18. t John xvi. 15. 



THE DIVINE EDUCATION OF THE CHUECH. 35 

observing a gradation, or even subordination, one to 
the other, in the plan and work of human redemption. 
Such subordination is not of any inherent necessity (so 
far as we may judge), but by arrangement; not essential, 
but economical and manifestative. In this manner 
the Son is represented as receiving from and submissive 
to the Father ; the Spirit as receiving from and sub- 
missive to the Son. The Divine Father is the source, 
the Divine Son is the channel, and the Divine Spirit 
is the applier or imparter of redemption. The " all 
things" — the plenitude of grace — we read of as pri- 
marily possessed by the Father : " All things that the 
Father hath ;" " My Father worketh hitherto." In the 
fulness of time the Father sent the Son, commissioned 
Him to be the Saviour of men ; and then committed to 
Him the " all things," that He might be the represen- 
tative of the Father, work the Father's works, and ac- 
complish the Father's will. This was often expressed 
by our Lord: "All things are delivered unto me of 
my Father f " My Father worketh hitherto, and I 
work." * The Son came to save : as the messenger of 
the Father, announcing His will; the servant of the 
Father, finishing His work; the gift of the Father, 
evincing His love; the witness for the Father, glorify- 
ing His name; and the trustee of the Father, holding 
and exercising His plenitude of power and grace. The 
words of Paid, "It pleased the Father that in him 

* See also John v. 19, 20, 26, xii. 49, 50. 



36 THE DIVINE EDUCATION OF THE CHTJKCH. 

should all fulness dwell/' are in exact harmony with 
our Lord's own words, "All things that the Father 
hath are mine." 

When the Son had finished His work, and gone up 
to the excellent glory, having received of the Father all 
power in heaven and in earth, He sent the Paraclete 
— the Holy Ghost was " shed forth." Then the " all 
things" committed by the Father to the Son were by 
the Son committed to the Spirit, and by Him are now 
shewn to the Church, and imprinted on the minds and 
hearts of individual believers. "He shall receive of 
mine, and shall shew it unto you." 

Thus the education of the Church is accomplished after 
a manner truly sublime. All grace and truth descend 
from Father to Son, from Son to Holy Ghost, and by 
the Holy Ghost are immediately revealed and imparted 
to human souls, elect of God. Then glory ascends, 
praise redounds from the Church of the enlightened 
and saved by the Spirit to the Son, and through the 
Son to the Father. In the glory of the Father all the 
results of the redemptive dispensation are gathered up, 
as from the love of the Father they flowed. "Then 
cometh the end, when Christ shall have delivered up 
the kingdom to God, even the Father." * 

* 1 Cor. xv. 24. 



THE ISOLATION OF THE HEAET. 37 



VII. 

%\t %%Mm 0f i\t Jjmi 

Eveey human being is new, without exact precedent 
or counterpart. No two human histories, no two 
human characters, entirely correspond. So vast are 
the resources of the Creator, that He never repeats 
Himself, even in forming generation after generation 
— millions of men. As every face or every form, so also 
every mind, every heart is a new product, and no 
copy of any that pre-existed or that co-exists. Every 
one has a course of experience and a way in life special 
to himself — his own, and not another's. There is such 
a community between man and man as lays a basis for 
confidence, friendship, sympathy ; but even where there 
is a very cordial reciprocation of feeling, there is, there 
must be, an individual inviolability, without which, 
indeed, there could be no liberty, no dignity — perhaps 
no personal virtue. 

Unreserved confession to a fellow-man is not only an 
impropriety, but an impossibility. I might tell to a 
" ghostly father " all the sins my memory retains or my 



38 THE ISOLATION OF THE HEART. 

language can express ; but there is in me still that 
which is incommunicable. I cannot expose my quiver- 
ing heart; and, if I could, my fellow-man could not look 
upon it. Jehovah only knows the heart. To search 
the hidden recesses of man is His prerogative. As 
John Foster finely said, "Each mind has an interior 
apartment of its own, into which none but itself and 
the Divinity can enter. In this secluded place the 
passions mingle and fluctuate in unknown agitations. 
Here projects, convictions, vows, are confusedly scat- 
tered, and the records of past life are laid. Here, in 
solitary state, sits Conscience, surrounded by her own 
thunders, which sometimes sleep and sometimes roar, 
while the world does not know/' 

"The heart knoweth its own bitterness" — but one 
heart cannot adequately express its grief to any other. 

" Not even the tenderest heart, and next our own, 
Knows half the reasons why we smile or sigh." 

The heart thirsts for sympathy, yet feels that it must 
sorrow alone. Did not this appear in the " Man of sor- 
rows acquainted with grief ? " He sought the society 
and sympathy of His familiar followers, Peter, James, 
and John, when in the garden " He began to be sore 
amazed, and very heavy." And yet He was alone in 
His agony. The disciples understood Him not. They 
even fell asleep while He, isolated from all men, went 
forward a little space alone, and, in the "bitterness" of 
His soul, fell on the ground and prayed. 



THE ISOLATION OF THE HEAET. 39 

Bitterness of grief such as Jesus felt no one knows, 
or can possibly endure. But in every serious distress we, 
too, have a craving for sympathy, and yet a necessity 
to be alone. And, indeed, the more intense the grief, 
the more we have it to ourselves. Let the spirit be 
pierced to the quick, or stirred to its depths, and no 
human being can suffice to be its comforter. Hannah 
knew her own bitterness, but Eli knew it not ; and 
instead of comforting, gave her a rash, unjust rebuke. 
Job knew his own bitterness ; but the friends who 
came to visit him in his affliction little knew how his 
wounded spirit should be healed. Perhaps there is no 
man of a deep emotional nature, who has been in much 
affliction, that has not found the sympathetic expres- 
sions of fellow-mortals, though perfectly well intended, 
yet hackneyed and unsatisfying — -just because entire 
reciprocity between heart and heart is, in the present 
life, impossible. 

" One writes, that ' other friends remain,' 

That ' loss is common to the race ' — 

And common is the commonplace, 

And vacant chaff well meant for grain. 

" That loss is common would not make 
My own less bitter, rather more ; 
Too common ! Never morning wore 
To evening but some heart did break! " 

No sympathy is sufficient for the human heart but 
that of the Lord Jesus. He knows what is in man ; 



40 THE ISOLATION OF THE HEART. 

He looks upon the heart ; He never misunderstands our 
case; and, whatever our peculiarity of temperament, He 
is skilful to provide the very relief or consolation that 
we need. The depth of His tenderness is not more won- 
derful than its perfect adaptation to minds of different 
orders, and of different degrees of strength and sensi- 
bility. For a sorrow that utters itself in words, there is 
the Saviour's open ear ; for that which may be soothed 
by words, there are the Saviour's lips, pouring out 
" gracious words ; " for that which cannot speak, which 
is silent, tearful, Mary-like, there are drops of consum- 
mate sympathy — there are the Saviour's tears ! 

The heart is isolated, not only in its sorrow, but 
also in its joy; no " stranger intermeddleth" therewith. 
Especially is this true of the "joy in the Lord." It 
cannot be known without personal religious experience. 
Unconverted persons may read of the "pleasures of 
piety," but are unable to form any just opinion regard- 
ing them, and very often sneer at them, out of sheer 
ignorance, as delusive or fanatical. " The kingdom of 
heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field ; the which 
when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof 
goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that 
field." * But one who traverses the field, and lights on 
no treasure, cannot understand that joy of the treasure- 
finder — sympathises not, intermeddles not therewith. 

Sometimes the young Christian is surprised to find 

* Matt. xiii. 44. 



THE ISOLATION OF THE HEAET. 41 

that he seems to stand so much alone; his ardent feel- 
ings are not shared by others. But it is with the 
heart's joys as with the heart's bitterness. One needs 
not look for any perfect sympathy. It is no new 
thing for those who rejoice greatly in God's service 
to be misunderstood. King David's own wife scorned 
and mocked his pious exultation. She despised him in 
her heart, and she mocked him to his face. Michal had 
" loved David/' but she was a stranger to the highest 
and deepest joys of the royal Psalmist's heart.* 

Every one who has any real spiritual experience 
knows that he has something which he can, something 
also which he cannot tell For the glory of God and 
the good of the Church let there be an avowal of 
mercy received ; but let it be made discreetly, delicately, 
humbly. Such declarations are not for the ears of the 
ungodly. These are strangers, who must not inter- 
meddle with our joy. The often-quoted language of 
Psalm lxvi. is addressed to those only who could under- 
stand the feelings of a devout mind : " Come and hear, 
all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath 
done for my soul." But when the declaration is made, 
there remains much untold. As great griefs are silent, 
so also are the greatest joys. The most sacred emo- 
tions are not to be "wrapped in coarse weeds of words," 
and paraded before every curious eye. An awe of God 
casts a chastening veil of silence over the most perfect 

* 2 Sam. vi. 16, 20-23. 



42 THE ISOLATION OF THE HEAET. 

bliss. The joy that flows through the new heart is not 
a babbling, shallow brook, but a deep, placid stream, 
moving softly beneath the shady trees. 

In joy as in sorrow we find the only consummate 
sympathy in Jesus. Thus the Church describes Him, 
" This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend, daugh- 
ters of Jerusalem ! .... I am my Beloved's, and his 
desire is toward me!"* 

* Cant. v. 16, vii. 10. 






THE MYSTEE1ES OF GOD, 43 



VIII. 

%\t fl^tos of §&h 

" Mysteey " is a Greek word. In our language it is 
employed to characterise something strange, dark, in- 
comprehensible ; but this is not its meaning in the 
New Testament. No passage can be quoted where this 
word denotes a curious or inscrutable secret ; and no 
Scriptural warrant exists for the superstitious applica- 
tion of the term to religious rites, as when the elements 
in the Lord's Supper are called "the Holy Mysteries." 
Indeed, the term " mystery " belongs not to rites at all, 
but to facts and truths; and it has been correctly 
defined as " a sacred thing, hidden or secret, which is 
naturally unknown to human reason, and becomes 
known only by the revelation of God." The Scripture 
calls that truth a mystery which it entered not into the 
human heart to conceive, and which was for ages hid 
from human cognisance, but in due time Divinely 
revealed. The essential idea is, not inscrutable diffi- 
culty of comprehension, but discovery to human minds 
by superhuman wisdom ; and the " mysteries of God," 



44 THE MYSTERIES OF GOD. 

of which the ministers of Christ are " stewards/' * are 
not the unrevealed, unfathomable depths of the Divine 
being and perfections, but the revealed truths concern- 
ing God, His government, and all His ways of justice 
and kindness with the sons of men. 

At the same time, so much of the popular idea 
regarding mysteries is to be retained, that we apply 
the title, not to all religious truths, but to those of a 
grand and impressive character — truths that transcend 
the unassisted human conceptions, and which, while 
revealed and understood in the fact of them, are yet, 
in the manner of them, far above us, and out of our 
sight. 

Men have been, and are, who reject all mysteries as 
superstitions, and repudiate all supernatural religion. 
This is strange enough ; for the same men are compelled 
every day to believe things the rationale of which they 
do not understand. Who among us really knows how 
a blade of grass springs, or how each herb preserves its 
peculiar scent, or how the sunlight stimulates the growth 
of plants ? Yet the facts are believed on sufficient evi- 
dence. There is mystery in a flower that blows as truly 
as in a star that burns. The old schoolmen said, 
"Omnia exeunt in mysterium \" and truly there is 
nothing known which does not reach out into the un- 
known — nothing exists the absolute ultimatum of 
which is not lost in mystery. 

* 1 Cor. iv. 1. 



THE MYSTEEIES OF GOD. 45 

Let us distinguish between the " Quid " and the 
" Quomodo." We must needs ascertain the " What," 
the import of that which we are asked to believe, and the 
evidence by which it is attended ; but the " How," the 
rationale, may not be within the range of our present 
mental powers. Let reason have all her due province 
in relation to revealed religious truths. No man can 
be asked to receive or reject a doctrine alleged to be 
from God until he understands the terms of the propo- 
sition in which it is conveyed ; but the understanding 
of the proposition does not necessarily imply that we 
can define with mathematical exactness all its terms and 
boundaries. Reason is an inquirer, and has an import- 
ant function to perform in investigating the force of 
evidence and the import of documents, but is not to 
decide on the truth or falsehood of what is taught or 
revealed by its own preconceptions and alleged intui- 
tions, which may be no better than prejudices. Let 
reason reject whatever is found to be without adequate 
evidence, or to involve a contradiction in terms; but 
let it not presume to reject any doctrine or fact on the 
ground that the rationale of it is not comprehended, 
as if it sat on the bench in a Supreme Court of Appeal. 
Human faculties cannot grasp infinite relations; the 
mind of man cannot " by searching find out God/' 

This is not all. Mysteries are not only admissible, 
but necessary to a true religion. It is vain to say that 
they are not characteristic of true religion ; because all 



46 THE MYSTERIES OF GOD. 

religions, even the most corrupt and degrading, have 
set forth mysteries to impress and control the multi- 
tude. Such a mode of attack on the Christian mys- 
teries is grossly unjust. No analogy exists between 
the pretended mysteries of Paganism and Popery on 
the one side, and those of Christianity on the other. 
The mysteries of ancient Paganism were secrets jeal- 
ously preserved, to maintain the influence of the idols 
and the priesthood ; and they were very often celebrated 
with rites and practices of vile impurity. What is 
there in common between such abominable inventions 
and the mysteries of the pure and holy Christian 
faith ? Equally unfair is it to compare the latter with 
the false mysteries of Popery, of which the most pro- 
minent is the astounding dogma of Transubstantiation. 
This is not a mystery at all, but an arrant contradic- 
tion. The Council of Trent thunders forth : "Si quis 
negaverit, in venerabili Sacramento eucharistise, sub 
unaquaque specie, et sub singulis cuj usque speciei 
partibus, separatione facta, totum Christum contineri ; 
anathema sit/' But that the body of Christ — a body 
having " flesh and bones/' having a definite extent, cir- 
cumference, and finitude — is literally and actually, at the 
same moment, in heaven and in earth, on a thousand 
altars at once, in every crumb of every consecrated wafer, 
and every drop of consecrated wine, — all this is no 
mystery of faith, but a contradiction which has and 
can have no evidence, and which no "anathema" can 



THE MYSTEKIES OF GOD. 47 

compel a sane man really to believe. One may shut 
his eyes to its real nature — may bow himself to acknow- 
ledge it — may say "Yes" to the dogmatic assertion; 
but no man can force his own spirit to believe self- 
contradictory ideas. The mysteries of the Bible are 
not so. They claim belief on evidence, as contained in 
a well-authenticated revelation from God; and they 
involve no contradiction, bidding no man to receive 
them at the cost of violating the first principles of his 
intellectual and moral nature. 

Such are the mysteries which we affirm to be essen- 
tial to a true religion. Man cannot give a religion to 
himself, transparent and complete ; he cannot find his 
way up the awful steeps toward the Divine Perfection. 
Eeligion is learned by revelation of God, by the vo- 
luntary communication of the Infinite with the finite. 
The idea of God as " infinite" necessarily involves the 
existence of mysteries. From Him they proceed ; in 
Him they centre. And in so far as we have religion, 
or come into relation to the Infinite One, we must walk 
on the margin of the incomprehensible — we must sail on 
the bosom of a sea whose depths our longest plummets 
cannot sound. 

Eeligious truths have not sprung to light in the 
mind of man, but have been radiated forth from the 
God of truth, at such times and in such measures as 
have seemed good to His inscrutable wisdom. Hidden 
from the Pagan world — hidden, in a great degree, even 



48 THE MYSTEEIES OP GOD. 

from the Church of the Old Testament — they were 
brought to light by the Gospel. Such are the cardinal 
doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the work of 
the Holy Ghost, and the resurrection of the dead. They 
are so numerous as to check the presumptuous mind ; 
they are not so numerous as to discourage any humble 
inquirer. The mysteries and the simplicities go hand- 
in-hand in Eevelation. To use the words of Chateau- 
briand, " Ce qu'il y a de veritablement ineffable dans 
l'Ecriture, c'est ce melange continuel des plus prof onds 
mysteres et de la plus extreme simplicite, caracteres 
d'ou naissent le touchant et le sublime/' * 

For the study of " the mysteries of God " we need a 
humble heart, since nothing is more blinding than 
pride. Every one knows that the most successful 
students of God's works have been men of a lowly and 
childlike spirit. The same observation applies to the 
study of God's Word. The most truly enlightened and 
religious spirits are the most ready to acknowledge 
ignorance, and the most impregnated with sincere 
docility. 

We also need a loving heart. Love is the wisest 
interpreter of the revelation of God. The sky — to 
take an illustration well employed by Vinet on this 
very point — is garnished with millions of stars, spark- 
ling through the night ; but a blind man sees them 
not, and forms no conception of their beauty. Another 

* Genie de Christianisme. 



THE MYSTEKIES OF GOD. 49 

sky overshadows us in Holy Scripture, with stars of 
truth shining from the azure depths ; but the blind 
and carnal heart perceives them not. There must be 
an eye of the heart, and that eye is love. The loving 
heart beholds the mystic stars. 



50 THE EOD OF CHEIST'S STRENGTH. 



m. 

%\t $0fo 0f tfjritf j Stegt|. 

The deliverer Moses, called of God in Midian, went 
down into Egypt without pretence or pomp, leading the 
ass that bore his wife and little ones. But though he 
seemed a poor weak old shepherd, he was mightier 
than all Egypt, for the Lord was with him. He came 
to scourge the most powerful kingdom of the world 
that then was, and to set ah enslaved nation free. 
Warranted to do this by a Divine command, he was 
equipped with Divine might and strength. "And 
Moses took the rod of God in his hand/'* This rod 
was no other than the simple shepherd's crook, which 
Moses had with him on Mount Horeb when he tended 
Jethro's flock. It pleased God to connect with that rod 
a miracle-working power, saying, " Thou shalt take this 
rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs/'-j- 
From that hour, Moses regarded his pastoral crook as 
invested with sacred dignity and worth, and called it 
" the rod of God." This rod he stretched over the Red 

* Exod. iv. 20. f Exod. iv. 17. 



THE EOD OF CHRIST^ STRENGTH. 51 

Sea, and the waters were divided; he stretched it out 
again, and the waters returned to their place. With 
this rod he smote the rock in Horeb, and a copious 
stream gushed forth. This rod also he lifted up to 
heaven till the going down of the sun, when he abode 
all day long on the top of the hill, sustained by Aaron 
and Hur, till Joshua had defeated Amalek with the 
edge of the sword, and from the tents of Israel rose the 
shouts of victory, echoing among the rocks, and resound- 
ing far over the desert plains. 

Herein is illustrated a principle on which all Divine 
deliverances proceed. The means and instruments are, 
to outward appearances, feeble and inadequate, but 
" the excellency of the power is of God,'"' and the results 
which He intends are sure. The shepherd's crook was 
a feeble thing as "the rod of Moses," but it was mighty 
as "the rod of God." In like wise, the gospel is a 
feeble thing as the word of man, but it is mighty — even 
omnipotent— as it is, "in truth, the word of God." 

As Moses came without pomp on an errand of judg- 
ment and mercy, on a mission of redemption, so came 
Jesus to the world, so comes Jesus to the heart — without 
noise or ostentation, but mighty to save. Do you ask 
for a sign that He is sent of God ? Ask it not. While 
He dwelt and ministered on earth, He indeed wrought 
signs and wonders before many witnesses, and appealed 
to them in attestation of His Divine mission, saying, 
" Believe me for the very works' sake." But no longer 



52 THE EOD OF CHEIST'S STEENGTH. 

are such signs given. No miracles are wrought on 
outward nature, or on the bodies of mankind. We have 
that which is better and greater than signs. "The 
Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom : 
but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stum- 
blingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness ; but unto 
them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ 
the power of God, and the wisdom of God."* 

The doctrine of His Holy Word, especially the truth 
of His " dying love/' is that rod of Christ's strength 
which does exploits. It is "sent out of Zion"-f- for 
judgment and for mercy. It is to subdue Christ's 
enemies, and to rule His willing people in His day of 
power. " With righteousness shall he judge the poor, 
and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth : and 
he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and 
with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked/' J 

Though preachers of the Gospel are weak, their 
weapon is mighty through God. It was no power of 
Moses, but the power of God with Moses, that punished 
Pharaoh, and delivered Israel. So with the rod of 
Christ's strength. It is administered now by feeble 
hands, wielded by sinful men. But it is none the less 
a rod of strength, a divider among men, for it is the 
truth of the Most High, and is accompanied by "the 
demonstration of the Spirit and power." § It is that 

* 1 Cor. I 22-24. f Ps. ex. 2. 

X Isa. xi. 4. § 1 Cor. ii. 4. 



THE ROD OF CHRIST 'S STRENGTH. 53 

instrument whereby the Holy Ghost, applying the 
redemption by Christ, works mighty changes in the 
moral world, devastating the kingdom of evil, and 
rescuing from cruel bondage the Church of the First- 
born — the " sacramental host of God's elect/' 



54 THE UEIM AND THUMMIM. 



X. 

%\t Irim ani)f f \xmam. 

The higli priest in Israel bore the names of the twelve 
tribes on his shoulders and on his breastplate, engraved 
on precious stones. The Lord Jesus, " our High Priest 
over the house of God/' sets His people as a seal upon 
His breast, and a seal upon His arm. He bears the 
Church on the shoulders of His strength, not only be- 
fore the face of man, but even before the face of God. 
He also carries the Church upon his breast, as the object 
of His love — binds believers to Himself with the golden 
chains of His everlasting faithfulness. 

On his breastplate, the high priest in the ancient 
sanctuary bore the " Urim and Thummim/' "What 
these precisely were no one knows ; but it is certain 
that, through means of these, the Divine will was com- 
municated to the high priest in solemn emergencies. 
In the days of the theocracy, the Most High, as the 
King of Israel, gave audience to His chief minister in the 
secret place of His pavilion, and transmitted through 
him His commands to His loyal subjects, the thousands 



THE UKIM AND THUMMIM. 55 

of Israel. The words, " Urim and Thummim'' (" lights 
and perfections"), appear to have denoted the clearness 
of the directions given to the high priest, and the 
perfect rectitude and wisdom of the decisions he was 
accordingly enabled to pronounce. 

In the highest sense, the Urim and Thnmmim are 
possessed by the " High Priest of our profession, Christ 
Jesus/' To this very symbol St Paul may have alluded 
when he wrote, " In whom (Christ) are hid all the trea- 
sures of wisdom and knowledge/' * Among other 
names of grace and glory, our Lord has this from the 
pen of the prophet, " His name shall be called, Coun- 
sellor/' f His counsels are all good and perfect. He 
had and has the most complete insight into the pur- 
poses of Heaven, and into the cares and wants of all the 
children of men. He needs not that any should testify 
of man, for He knows what is in man. He needs not 
that any should tell Him what is in God, for He knows 
what is in God. His knowledge is infinite, His wisdom 
is consummate ; and we are to receive, not only healing 
by His stripes, and pardon through His blood, but also 
the law at His mouth ; we are to learn of Him who is 
meek and lowly in heart, that we may find rest to our 
souls. 

The guidance which Israel's high priest obtained by 
Urim and Thummim, and communicated to the people, 
was confined to great national occasions. But Christ 

* Col. ii. 3. t Isa. ix. 6. 



Ob THE UEIM AND THUMMIM. 

is able and willing to give to His people who humbly 
ask Him, Divine direction in all the detailed difficul- 
ties and perplexities of personal and family life. As 
many as rest upon the value of His sacrifice, and hope 
in His continual intercession, receive freely the light of 
His Spirit, whereby they understand the Scriptures, 
and are moulded in disposition, and speech, and conduct 
according to the will of God. It is not in man that 
walketh to direct his steps ; but the Christian man has 
Christ, the Wonderful Counsellor, on whom to lean — 
has in Christ, the Urim and Thummim, the treasures of 
wisdom and knowledge, at his prayerful command; so 
that he cannot fatally err from the way of truth and 
rectitude. Safely he is guided through the trials of the 
outer and the temptations of the inner life, till he is 
taken up, through death's dark gate, into the presence 
of the High Priest, to join the fair ranks of those whom 
He has made kings and priests to God, even His 
Father — who shall reign for ever and ever. 



OFFENCE IN CHEIST. 57 



XL 

Mma k €\xM. 

The Kock of salvation has ever been to many minds 
" a stumblingstone and rock of offence/' The blessed 
Bedeemer, while He dwelt among men, knew perfectly 
that many were "offended in Him" — was well aware 
of the opposition to His character and claims — and yet 
was not careful to reply to all objections — was content 
to appeal to those positive evidences of His healing 
power and saving grace which might suffice to con- 
vince an honest judgment — leaving opportunity to 
others to question and cavil as they pleased. In this 
lies an obvious analogy between the Incarnate Word 
and the written Word of God. Neither in the mani- 
festation and life of the one, nor in the structure and 
language of the other, has provision been made against 
all possible offences. On the contrary, the claims of 
Jesus Christ, like the claims of the Bible, are so put 
forth as to try the spirit of man — not compelling assent 
as by a mechanical necessity — not rendering cavil and 
objection impossible — but clothed in such evidence as 



58 OFFENCE IN CHEIST. 

will test the moral fairness of each responsible human 
mind. 

The offence in Christ taken by the ancient Jews is 
carefully recorded by the Evangelists for our admoni- 
tion and warning; for men of the same dispositions 
with those Jews exist among us, and are as much 
offended as ever in the Lord Jesus. There never were 
more Pharisees and Sadducees than now. The Phari- 
sees are they to whom religion is a matter of self- 
righteousness, or churchmanship,' or laborious routine. 
The Sadducees are they by whom religion is frittered 
away in scepticism, intellectual vanity, and " philosophy 
falsely so called/' To them must be added the large 
class of men to whom religion is a deathbed shadow, 
and tenrporal success the only substance ; for the most 
numerous sect in Christendom is the sect of the world- 
lings, and the heresy most in vogue is the practical one 
of secularism in all the feelings of the heart, and all 
the aims and labours of the life. 

The following were the chief causes of offence found 
in the blessed Saviour of old time, and they are the 
same in substance as those which prejudice many minds 
and hearts against Him at the present hour : — 

1. The constitution of His 'person as the God-man. 
— At whatever time the truth concerning our Lord as 
" the only-begotten of the Father/' or as " God mani- 
fested in the flesh," was affirmed, the Jews were offended 
in Him. When, on a certain day, they " took up stones 



OFFENCE IN CHRIST. 59 

to stone Him/' it was on this charge, " For blasphemy, 
because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God." 
There is evidence that almost any other claim on our 
Lord's part would have been admitted, if He had sup- 
pressed the claim of Divinity. The people received 
Him as a great prophet, and were more than once 
ready to make Him their king. But His assertion of 
His Divine Sonship ruined His popularity, and finally 
occasioned His condemnation to death in the court of 
the high priest. Before Pilate He was accused of 
treason •* but before Caiaphas, the charge on which 
the Redeemer was condemned was blasphemy. " The 
high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the 
Christ, the Son of the Blessed ? And Jesus said, I am ; 
and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right 
hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. 
Then the high priest rent his clothes," &c.-f" Thus the 
Jewish ecclesiastics were offended in the Lord Jesus, 
because of the assertion of the truth regarding His 
person as at once the Son of the Blessed and the Son 
of man. But He went to death rather than compro- 
mise that truth. 

Is not this an offence that continues to the present 
hour ? If we now say that Jesus Christ, the Son of 
man, was and is the Son of the blessed God, and that 
the Son and the Father are one, j are there not some 
ready to charge us with folly, perhaps with blasphemy ? 

* Luke xxiii. 2. f Mark xiv. 61-64. J John x. 30, 



60 OFFENCE IN CHRIST. 

Do not the Arians and Socinians, the whole body of 
those who have assumed the title of Unitarians, just 
prolong the very "offence" taken by the unbelieving 
Jews ? Ask them to say precisely " who the Son of 
man is/' and their answers will vary as much as did 
those of the Jews reported by the disciples.* Make 
any claim for Christ other than that of Deity, and many 
of them will hasten to concede it, and vie with you in 
eulogistic and almost adoring language applied to the 
Holy Jesus. But let us affirm that the Son of man is 
the co-equal Son of the Blessed — let us say, with the 
Apostle John, " This is the true God, and Eternal Life/' 
and straightway they resist us, and are offended in Him. 
The apostle of Unitarianism is Caiaphas. 

2. The lowly state in which the Lord Jesus lived, 
and in which the Christian Church took its beginning. 
The meek and lowly Saviour, walking through the land 
in humble guise, unnoticed by the magnates of this 
world, attended by a few fishermen and peasants and 
poor women, in no respect met the ambitious wishes 
of His countrymen, and they were " offended in Him." 
In " His own country/' they said, " Is not this the 
carpenter's son ? Is not his mother called Mary ? and 
his brethren, and his sisters, are they not all with us ? 
.... And they were offended in him."+ Now it had 
been easy for the Son of the Blessed to have chosen 
His human birth in a higher station of life than that of 

* Matt. xvi. 14. f Matt. xiii. 55-57. 



OFFENCE IN CHEIST. 61 

( ' the carpenter's house/' and His early human home at 
Jerusalem, rather than at the proverbially despised 
town of Nazareth — but He did not see meet to obviate 
all occasion of offence. It pleased Him to take the form 
of a servant, though He was Lord of all. It pleased 
Him even to be of Galilee, out of which " cometh no 
prophet." 

The obscure condition of Christ's first disciples in- 
creased this occasion of offence. The Jewish ecclesias- 
tics and the whole sect of the Pharisees were especially 
influenced by this ; for they felt, and took no pains to 
conceal, an arrogant contempt for the common people. 
Witness their reply to " the officers," who had refrained 
from arresting Jesus, because never man spake like 
Him — "Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers 
or of the Pharisees believed on him ? But this people 
who knoweth not the law are cursed." * 

This prejudice against a lowly Saviour, a companion 
of the poor, a friend of the common people, has never 
ceased. Advantage was taken of it by the early heathen 
opponents of Christianity. Thus Celsus, who antici- 
pated so many of the scoffs and gibes of modern infi- 
dels, remarked with a sneer — men, " woollen manufac- 
turers, shoemakers, curriers, and the like, the most 
uneducated and boorish men, are zealous advocates of 
this religion — men who cannot open their mouths be- 
fore the learned." \ In fact, nothing could reconcile 

* John vii. 45-49. f Quoted by Neander. 



62 OFFENCE IN CHRIST. 






the proud Jewish sectaries, and equally proud Gentile 
sceptics, to the thought, that from a " carpenter's house" 
should issue the Saviour of the world, and that poor 
and unlearned men should persevere to convert nations, 
and establish on earth a " kingdom of heaven." In our 
own times, this old offence continues to be felt. It is 
shewn in the boastful language of some who affect an 
air of superiority and patronage toward the apostles of 
our Lord, if not our Lord Himself. It is shewn, too, 
in the foolish desire to connect the Church with a social 
exclusiveness — to set apart particular Christian circles 
or places as fashionable or patrician — placing the 
"lower orders" at a distance and disadvantage in reli- 
gious privileges — despising the churches of the poor. 

8. The strictness of our Lord's doctrine and pre- 
cepts. — Many were offended by the bold, unsparing, and 
holy ministry of Jesus. The evil conscience of His 
generation was wounded by His fidelity, and its self- 
indulgence chafed under His absolute claims. When 
He preached of the heart's depravity, as flowing forth 
and defiling the man, His disciples said to Him, 
" Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after 
they heard this saying? But he answered and said, 
Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, 
shall be rooted up. Let them alone : they be blind 
leaders of the blind." * This was His unflinching 
spirit. Let who would be offended, our Lord sparec] 

* Matt. xv. 10-14. 



OFFENCE IN CHRIST. 63 

no sin, recognised no hypocritical form of godliness, 
allowed no compromise between God and Mammon, 
demanded the surrender and devotion of all the heart ; 
and, alike in the precepts He delivered and the ex- 
amples He shewed, presented to His contemporaries, 
and to all generations, the highest standard and purest 
model of holiness. Had He been content to prescribe a 
ceremonial strictness, a rigorous observance of external 
religious usages, the Pharisees would have applauded 
His zeal : had He, on the other hand, encouraged a 
latitudinarian spirit, the Sadclucees would have lauded 
His charity, complimented His superiority to the vul- 
gar superstitions : but the course that He took — the 
inward holiness and righteousness that He inculcated, 
displeased them all, because it condemned them all; 
and with one accord those carnaUy-minded men were 
" offended in Him/' 

Assuredly this remains a cause of offence to the 
present hour. The strict sanctity of Christ's character 
and precepts can never be congenial to the selfish, evil 
heart of man. And men refuse to be Christians, or 
become bad and inconsistent Christians, because, how- 
ever desirous to be saved from hell, they are not will- 
ing to part with their besetting sins, or to deny them- 
selves, and daily take up the cross, following Jesus. 

4. The manner and object of His death. — The Evan- 
gelists describe, with all plainness of speech, the igno- 
miny to which our Lord was subjected, the coarse de- 



64 OFFENCE IN CHEIST. 

rision, and the tree of shame. The apostles also speak 
of "His body on the tree," and His "being made a 
curse for us." To enlightened Christians this has 
always been cause of glorying ; but to others an occa- 
sion of offence. Even the eleven disciples, truly loving 
Jesus, could not bear that He should die as He did. 
They laboured to dissuade Him from going up to Jeru- 
salem to suffer ; and though they went up, resolved to 
" die with Him/' they all flinched in the trying hour. 
" Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended 
because of me this night." * The thought of salvation 
through a despised and rejected Sufferer was strange 
to all minds, and confounded all expectations. 

We have been wont, from our youth up, to think 
of the death of Christ with thankfulness as a sacrifice 
for the expiation of sins. But this continues to be 
a stumblingblock to many. The modern Jews, when 
they would express their contempt or hatred of the 
Lord Jesus, call Him " the Hanged One." The Deists, 
and Unitarians, and Universalists, and a multitude 
who have not formally ranged themselves under these 
denominations, but whose sentiments are very far from 
the evangelical standard, continue stoutly to resist the 
doctrine of atonement or propitiation. The offence of 
the Cross has not ceased. 

5. The afflictions of His people. — Our Lord never 
concealed from His followers that trials and deaths 

* Matt. xxvi. 31. 



OFFENCE IN CHPJST. 65 

awaited them ; and that certain hearers, not having root 
in themselves, would be offended whenever " tribula- 
tion or persecution should arise because of the word."* 
He evinced the most tender desire that His chosen 
disciples might stand firm in the day of rebuke, and 
promised to them the support of the Holy Ghost, the 
Comforter. 

The like open persecutions do not ensue on our con- 
fession of the name of Jesus ; but tribulation in some 
form is appointed to all who are His. Many who 
name His name incur an obloquy and derision very 
hard to be borne. Tor this cause, some who are per- 
suaded of the truth refuse or delay to take Christ's 
yoke upon them, and are even "offended in Him/' 

6. The discords and divisions of His Church. — In 
the earliest times this was not so great an objection as 
now, for the primitive Church, though no stranger 
to factions and disputes, presented one front to the 
heathens and the Jews. But, in modern days of con- 
troversy and division, it is common to allege that it is 
impossible to know who is right, and what is true ; and 
on this ground to be offended in Christ. But it should 
be considered that the discords and dissensions com- 
plained of come not of the Spirit of Christ, form no 
part of our holy religion, but spring out of the mis- 
understandings, imperfections, and wilfulnesses of the 
human mind. It should be noticed, too, in all fairness, 

* Matt. xiii. 20, 21. 
E 



66 OFFENCE IN CHEIST. 

that many of the existing diversities affect not at all 
the essentials of the faith in Christ, but are connected 
with views of Chnrch polity, or with national or local 
preferences, or with varieties in the forms of worship. 
This at least we can say: In every Church, worthy of 
the name, Christ is preached — the same Christ ; and it 
is worse than folly, on account of subordinate questions 
and variations among Christians, to reject Christ Him- 
self, or be " offended in Him/' 

So long as, for any one of these reasons, or on any 
other account, we hold aloof from Christ, conjuring up 
difficulties and doubts, we shall never be without occa- 
sions of offence ; we can never know a calm and settled 
peace. But whenever, heeding them not, we go straight 
to Christ, and rest on Him as offered to us in the 
Gospel, all perplexities become plain, all theoretic ques- 
tionings find their best solution in our gracious expe- 
rience, and every day convinces us more deeply that 
" Christ is all and in all." Wisdom is thus justified of 
her children. And while the children of that worldly 
Wisdom, which is foolishness with God, continue to 
cavil and object, the children of heavenly Wisdom are 
not confounded world without end ; — the dwellers on 
the Eock sing a new song, even praise unto our God. 






THE PRE-EMINENCE OF JESUS CHRIST. 67 



XII 

%\t f rnnrntma of %m% €\mi 

As " the Image of the invisible God/' our Lord Jesus 
Christ has the pre-eminence. His is the glory of the 
only-begotten of the Father. He is the manifestation 
of the inscrutable Jehovah — declaring the Divine 
nature and will — administering the Divine government ; 
God with us, and God over all, blessed for evermore. 

As the author of creation, and the upholder of all 
that He has created, our Lord Jesus Christ has the pre- 
eminence. Creation existed as an idea or plan in the 
infinite mind of God : in due time it was carried into 
effect by the power of the Logos, the only-begotten Son. 
" All things were made by him; and without him was 
not any thing made that was made/' * To us, all the 
beauties and sublimities of creation, and all the har- 
monies and intricacies of Providence, attest His pre- 
eminence, and celebrate His praise. The bright worlds 
that move in their courses, observing their times and 
seasons, are made and ruled by the Christ of God. The 

* John i. 3. 



68 THE PRE-EMINENCE OF JESUS CHRIST. 

vast universe reverently declares His pre-eminence ; and 
the praise of the First-born is set to the music of the 
spheres. By the angels in their majestic order, thrones, 
dominions, principalities, and powers, He is acknow- 
ledged ever pre-eniinent ; for "all the angels of God 
worship Him/'* His glorious name is written, too, on 
this fair earth — its woods, and flowers, and gems, and 
fruits, and wonders of the deep. In the order and 
history of our earth, let us read the praise of Christ — 
Christ in all present — Christ over all pre-eminent. 
"AH things were created by him, and for him; and he 
is before all things, and by him all things consist, "f 

As the Source and Head of the Church, in His 
capacity of Lord of the resurrection, Jesus Christ has 
the pre-eminence. 

He is the Ruler of the Church — governing the indi- 
vidual Christian, as being "the Head of every man" — 
governing also the Catholic Church, as its King and 
Head. The pope is not head of the Church — the 
sovereign is not head of the Church — the vox populi 
is not head of the Church. No bishop nor archbishop 
is primate of the Church of Christ. All such claims 
are at variance with His own inalienable prerogatives. 
He is the Head, holding all the members in subordina- 
tion and harmony. He is also the Primate, the apxv 
of the new creation — having both priority and supe- 
riority ; the Founder of the Church, the beginning of 
* Heb. i. 6. + Col. i. 16, 17. 



THE PRE-EMINENCE OF JESUS CHRIST. 69 

its existence, and source of the blessed influence whereby 
it lives; and also the Chief, the Lord, the Leader and 
Commander of the Church; and so the Primate, the 
only Primate, the first in authority and rank.* 

He, too, is the Saviour of the Church; and in this 
pre-eminent, unapproachable, alone. " Neither is there 
salvation in any other." In the exercise of His saving 
powers and prerogatives He manifests this pre-emi- 
nence. He sends to the Church the Holy Ghost, by 
whose operation the world is convinced of sin, right- 
eousness, and judgment ; the anxious are led to peace 
in believing; the saints are edified; and the mourners 
in Zion consoled. He reconciles sinners to God; for 
in Plim, the pre-eminent One, the sin-polluted find 
cleansing blood — the lost have redemption — the guilty 
have justification — and the far-off are made nigh. He 
keeps His own from perishing. Other shepherds may 
lose some of their flock; but the pre-eminent One, the 
Shepherd and Bishop of souls, has said of His sheep, 
" I give unto them eternal life ; and they shall never 
perish, neither shall any one pluck them out of my 
hand."-)- At last He brings His own to heaven. The 
Church is in many struggles and infirmities; but her 
Lord guides her by His counsel, and will receive her 
to glory. The life of the Church is in the Head, and 
the Head- is "pre-eminent." With the Head, the 
members shall be glorified together. "When Christ, 

* Col. i. 18. + John x. 28. 



70 THE PRE-EMINENCE OF JESUS CHEIST. 

our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with 
him in glory/'* 

To take up the strain of Samuel Eutherford — " Oh 
but Christ is heaven's wonder, and earth's wonder! 
What marvel that His Bride saith, 'He is altogether 
lovely'? Oh that I could invite thousands, and ten 
thousand times ten thousand, of Adam's sons to flock 
about my Lord Jesus, and to come and take their fill of 
love ! Pity for evermore, that there should be such a 
One as Christ Jesus — so boundless, so incomparable in 
excellency and sweetness — and so few to take Him ! 
Ho ! why will ye not come hither, with your empty 
souls, to this huge, fair, deep, sweet Well of Life, and 
fill all your vessels ? Come all and drink at this living 
Well, and satisfy your deep desires with Jesus l"f 

* Col. iii. 4. f Rutherford's Letters. 




A WORD IN SEASON TO THE WEAKY. 71 



XIII. 

Jl SMr in jtam to t|e Itorg. 

A good word is always a weapon of power, doubly so 
when spoken at the right time in the right place. It 
is a proverb of Solomon, "A word fitly spoken (marg., 
' spoken upon his wheels ') is like apples of gold in 
pictures (network) of silver." * The beauty of the sil- 
ver basket gives a heightened attraction to the golden 
fruit. So does the seasonableness of a true saying 
much enhance its value and effect. " A word spoken 
in due season, how good is it ! " — a word apt to the 
occasion, not forced or formal, but running as on 
chariot wheels ! This was characteristic of the sayings 
of the Lord Jesus. They had an aptitude to some pre- 
sent event or want, or rose out of a conversation ; not 
dragged in of set purpose ; but, running on in a manner 
of inimitable ease and dignity, they were words upon 
the wheels. Thus the discourse against covetousness 
and worldly care rose out of the saying of " one of the 
company/' " Master, speak to my brother, that he divide 

* Prov. xxv. 11. 



72 A WOED IN SEASON TO THE WEAEY. 

the inheritance with me/' * The successive parables of 
the lost sheep, the lost drachma, and the prodigal son, 
are all "words on the wheels," starting from that mur- 
mur of the Pharisees and scribes, " This man receiveth 
sinners, and eateth with theni/'-f* The "gracious 
words" in regard to the " living water" sprung from the 
simple circumstance that a woman of Samaria came 
to Jacob's well to draw water, and Jesus, sitting by the 
well, said to her, " Give me to drink " J From the be- 
ginning, His words of spiritual instruction ran "upon 
wheels/' One instance more. Our Lord's discourse on 
" the bread of life " followed the miracle of multiplying 
loaves in the wilderness, and took its rise most appro- 
priately from this saying, " Ye seek me, not because ye 
saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, 
and were filled. Labour not for the meat which 
perisheth," &c. § So the word ran speedily. 

The words of our Lord were sometimes swift and 
sharp reproofs. The Holy One of God could not live 
in this world for thirty years without finding much to 
deplore and reprehend ; and nowhere can be found 
language of more uncompromising denunciation than 
that which the Lord Jesus employed against pretentious, 
hypocritical, carnally -minded men. Yet, mainly and 
characteristically, the work of Christ was a work of 
gentleness — His mission, a mission of kindness — and 

* Luke xii. 13. + Luke xv. 2. 

± John iv. 7. § John vi. 26, 27. 



A WOED IN SEASON TO THE WEAEY. 73 

His words distilled as seasonable clew on parched and 
weary souls. The Man of sorrows was no stranger to 
weariness, and he had compassion on the weary and 
heavy laden. He knew how to speak to their hearts, 
for " the Lord God had given him the tongue of the 
learned."* He did not strive or cry in the streets. 
His ministry was not one of clamour and noisy noto- 
riety, of " lo ! here, and lo ! there/' But, after the 
whirlwind, and earthquake, and fire, He spoke with " a 
still, small voice." He uttered terrible things to the 
proud ; but His ministry to the humble was mild, 
patient, encouraging, with a mighty secret power — 
soul-moving, soul-melting, soul-healing, soul-cheering, 
soul-winnbig — not understood by the stout-hearted, 
but well suited to all the weary ones. 

Reader ! Are you weary under the burden of sin ? 
Has the pressure of a guilty conscience borne you down 
to grief and shame? The Lord, "with the tongue of 
the learned," has a word in season for you. " Know 
that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive 
sins." " Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." 

Reader ! Are you weary under vexation of spirit ? 
Have you been deceived, disappointed, chagrined ? Has 
the wretchedness of an unsatisfied heart fallen upon 
you ? You detect the hollowness of worldly hopes and 
joys, and yet have no better portion ; so are you jaded, 
desolate, ill at ease. Weary one ! the " tongue of the 

*Isa. 1.4. 



74 A WOED IN SEASON TO THE WEAEY. 

learned " has a word in season for yon. " Come nnto 
me, all ye that labonr and are heavy laden, and I wil 
give you rest." * 

Reader ! Are yon weary under the toil and care of 
life ? Early and late do you labour for daily bread ? 
Or, do difficulties rise before you, like threatening 
spectres, and you know not how to face them ? All 
day long you are embarrassed, and even by night, upon 
your bed, you are vexed and sick at heart. Hearken 
to "the tongue of the learned:" — "Seek not ye what 
ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of 
doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of 
the world seek after : and your Father knoweth that ye 
have need of these things/' -j* 

Reader ! Are you weary under a weight of afflic- 
tions ? Have bereavements and sorrows fallen on you 
till your eyes are dim, and your heart is faint ? Have 
earthly consolations failed you, and even dear earthly 
friends proved miserable comforters all ? There is One 
who is touched with a feeling of our infirmities, who 
loves to " comfort all that mourn," and who knows how 
to speak a word in season to the spirit desolate. 

" A bruised reed shall he not break." J We are not 
as the solid rocks, or hoary hills ; rather as the blades 
of grass, or as the reeds in a fen or by a river bank — 
short-lived, slender, and susceptible. If we stand erect 
in our seeming prosperity and strength, affliction, sent 

* Matt. xi. 28. f Luke xii. 29, 30. $ Isa. xlii. 3. 



A WOKD IN SEASON TO THE WEARY. 75 

in mercy, reveals the frailty of our frame. Pressed with 
disquietudes, bent with sorrows, man is a bruised reed 
But then, when the reed is bruised, how delicate the 
touch of our Saviour's hand ! He does not break, but 
sustain ; He does not upbraid, but upbincl ; He does 
not discourage, but revive. It is man who is harsh 
to man ; but the Lord " healeth the broken in heart, 
and bincleth up their wounds/'* 

The intercourse of Christians should be marked by 
the gentleness as well as the faithfulness that dwelt in 
Christ. That is the most truly " learned tongue/' which 
speaks in season healing words to the wounded, guiding 
words to the anxious, reviving words to the weary. A 
feeble Christian may, by a "word upon the wheels," 
give comfort to one much stronger, who for the time is 
harassed and faint. Martin Luther said, " The word of 
a brother, pronounced from Holy Scripture in time of 
need, carries with it an inconceivable weight. Thus 
Timothy, and Titus, and Epaphras, and the brethren 
who met St Paul from Rome, cheered his spirit, how- 
ever much they might be inferior to him in skill and 
learning in the word of God. The greatest saints have 
their times of faintness, when others are stronger than 
they/' 

* Psalm cxlvii. 3, 



76 COMPENSATION. 



XIV. 

A LAW of compensation pervades all nature. All things 
that exist, organic and inorganic, in the explored uni- 
verse, are, with extreme niceness and delicacy, ordered, 
proportioned, collocated, and balanced, so as to maintain 
the conditions necessary to the life and happiness of 
the creatures, and effect, without flaw or failure, the 
Creator's comprehensive and benevolent designs. 

Beautiful is the working of the same law in the life 
of individual man, producing a balance of natural well- 
being, wonderfully equal in all countries and ranks. 
No man is so ill off, but has something in his favour. 
No man is so fortunate, but has some worm gnawing 
the root of his enjoyment. Poverty is relieved by a 
cheerful spirit — wealth burdened with many cares. 
Hard toil is recompensed by sturdy health — luxury 
punished by a feeble constitution. " The choicest plea- 
sures of life lie within the ring of moderation/' 

No wise man will give place to discontent, when he 
surveys the conditions of his fellow-men, and sees how 



COMPENSATION. 77 

easily advantages and disadvantages are balanced. He 
who has eminence is exposed to envy. He who lives 
in great state, foregoes the simple comforts of a home. 
The honoured warrior leaves wife and children dear, to 
face danger and death. The man of thought and learn- 
ing bows beneath a spirit overstrained. Truly, obscu- 
rity has its compensations : and he is wise who, desir- 
ing not high things, seeks the prize of happiness within 
the charmed circle of content. 

Consider even the undoubted sores and trials of this 
mortal life. " Sweet are the uses of adversity." With 
all pains and losses, there are sent blessings, or reme- 
dies, or, at the least, alleviations, if we will only receive 
them. Of old time was it not found, that what the 
Church lost by martyrdom was more than repaid by 
new accession of converts and new fervour of zeal? 
The Church lost a Deacon, Stephen ; but how rich and 
strange the compensation ! — as from the Deacons 
martyred dust there sprung an Apostle, Paul. For 
the individual, too, as well as the community, disease 
and calamity have their uses, their alleviations, even 
their ample compensations. Uses — forasmuch as they 
serve to refine, humble, and hallow the character. 
Alleviations — since " God stayeth His rough wind in 
the day of His east wind." * And even compensations 
— for some help, some vantage, not seen at first, is sure 
to reveal itself to those that are watchful and wise. 

* Isa. xxvii. 8. 



78 COMPENSATION. 

When Paul came to Macedonia, Ms "flesh had no rest" 
— " without were fightings, within were fears ; " but 
God comforted him " by the coming of Titus/' * Thus, 
often, when we are in great straits, some unexpected 
Titus comes — some friendly compensation — and we are 
not weaker, rather stronger ; and after our tears — some- 
times in our tears — we are happier than before. It is 
true of life, as of nature, that with the dark cloud God 
sets a rainbow in the sky. 

Alas ! indeed, there is an awful incubus lying on the 
life and happiness of earth and earthly beings. There 
is a disorder that was not in our world when the 
Creator pronounced it " very good." There is a dark- 
ness that may be felt. There is an anguish at the 
heart of humanity. In one word, there is moral evil 
— there is sin. Because of this, man aches, and fears, 
and dies. Because of this, the whole creation groans 
and travails in pain. But God hath not left us without 
help. There is a remedial plan revealed in the glorious 
Gospel. There is a redeeming blood — there is a renew- 
ing power. There is a Divine provision, whereby man, 
though evil and wretched, may be made a new crea- 
ture, and with him all sin-stained things made new. 

The more we consider human life, the more vast 
appears the action of the law of compensation. Evils 
are permitted for a season to oppress the good ; but 
the good are saved by hope, and the things hoped for 

* 2 Cor. vii. 5, C. 



COMPENSATION. 79 

bring the abundant recompence. One cannot think, 
even from present appearances, that this is the final 
state. Human life is evidently cut short — broken off, 
fragmentary, and incomplete. The sowing time is now 
but the reaping time, for the most part, after death. 
The faintness of the long wilderness has compensation 
in the milk and honey of the promised land. In fact, 
the doctrine of compensation applied to men, both the 
evil and the good, involves " the doctrines" of judgment 
and future states. 

' ' This world shall burn, and from her ashes spring 
New heaven and earth, wherein the just shall dwell : 
And, after all their tribulations long, 
See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds." 



80 LESSONS FEOM WINTEB. 



XV. 

$mm$ fnrat WM%. 

In our Canadian climate, winter is not so gloomy as in 
many other regions of the world. With bright skies 
by day and night, crisp snow, and bracing air, the 
season is cheerful, notwithstanding its inexorable 
severity. Would that another Cowper were among us, 
to sing of "The Winter Evening," "The Winter Morn- 
ing Walk," and " The Winter Walk at Noon" ! Mean- 
time, in such poor prose as we command, we inquire 
what occasions of human life, and what lessons for 
those occasions, the winter months suggest. 

1. Is not the winter an obvious emblem of old age — 
not necessarily cheerless, but chill, rigid, decayed ? The 
trees are dry and bare — with no sap in their boughs, 
and on them no foliage. So baldness comes on the old 
man's head, his limbs stiffen, and the fire passes from 
his blood, telling that life's last season has arrived. 
Now, he who is wise will be careful not to repine under 
the pressure of age, but, looking up to God, will say, in 
submission of faith, "Thou hast made winter." Is He 



LESSONS FEOM WINTER. 81 

the God of youth only? Nay; but of old age also. 
He has ordained the withering of age as truly and lov- 
ingly as the budding and springing of youth. Nay, 
more. Winter does not extinguish Nature's life, but 
secretly husbands her powers for a glorious revival. It 
is so with the winter of old age among the people of 
God. In their roots is the sap of immortality. In 
their old age and dissolution there may seem to be a de- 
cay of their life and hope ; but this is only preparatory 
to their glorious resurrection, and to an existence that 
shall never feel the icy breath of winter again. " Thou 
hast made summer and winter/'* And the summer 
that God makes to follow the last winter of this earthly 
life is the summer of eternal joy at His right hand, 
under the beams, not of sun, or moon, or stars, but of 
the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb ! 

This thought need not be confined to actual old age. 
It may comfort every believer who has by any cause 
waxed early old, and lost the bloom and glow of life. 
Let him submit himself unto God, who makes both 
winter and summer, and let him cleave to Christ, in 
whom all the saints shall be made alive : so will he 
renew his youth after a manner that eye hath not seen 
and ear hath not heard on earth; his "heart shall ever 
live; and his very body, that dwelt in dust, shall awake 
to sing, having a dew from the Lord as the dew of 
herbs, when the earth shall cast out the dead."*f* His 

* Psalm lxxiv. 17. f Is?, xxvi. 19. 

F 



82 LESSONS FEOM WINTER. 

winter shall be followed by the bright springtide of the 
heavenly summer, that is never ended, never blighted, 
in the promised ]and. 

2. Is not the winter, bleak and bare, also a figure of 
those times of bereavement and affliction, whereof 
almost all have some experience? The leaves have 
fallen, the woods are stript, the flowers are dead, the 
open country is a waste of snow, and the flowing waters 
are a frozen mass. So is it with the sons of sorrow. 
As fade and fall the leaves, so "friend after friend 
departs/' Some that had children and relatives thick 
around them are now alone, like naked trees, shivering 
before the wind. Life now seems a wintry waste — no 
landscape, no flowers, no flowing streams — and the 
heart lies chill and hopeless. 

But who hath done these things ? Surely it is the 
Lord who made thy winter, son of sorrow ! and 
made it for His glory and thy good, since " He doth 
not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men." * 
He, also, He only, can make thy winter pass away. 
Only be patient, prayerful, and of good cheer, and He 
who made the winter will make a summer too ! The 
Lord knows how to turn sorrow into joy, and shivering, 
cheerless feebleness into cheerful godly confidence : 
and as for those dear ones of whom we are bereaved, 
He knows how to give them back to us in a home that 
sorrow never enters, in a fellowship that death never 

* Lament, iii. 33. 



LESSONS FEOM WLNTEK. 83 

divides. " Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall 
be comforted/'* In the coming summer, the trees of 
righteousness shall be clothed anew with more than 
they had ever lost, and the gentle flowers shall lift up 
their heads to bloom again in an immortal youth. 

3. May not the winter also illustrate those times of 
spiritual hardness and coldness, through which even 
godly persons sometimes pass? It is rare to spend 
all the Christian life under warm sunshine and among 
clustering flowers. Seasons there are, in the experience 
of many, when the pious affections seem to be con- 
gealed, if not extinct; hope languishes, love waxes 
cold, and the very Sun of righteousness appears low 
on the horizon, and greatly shorn of His power. When- 
ever this chill comes upon the soul, through unwatch- 
fulness or relapse into sin, it is to be penitently be- 
wailed; and it will not pass away without the softening 
of contrition and the ardour of prayer. When it comes, 
not as the penalty of specific sinfulness, but according 
to the sovereign will of God, who permits the feelings 
of the human heart to undergo a sharp reaction after 
religious joys, as though they fell from summer into 
the cold bosom of winter, it is to be borne as the good 
pleasure of Him who hath made summer and winter, 
and it is to be accepted as a season, if of painful, still 
of useful discipline. Provided always that there is 
grace in the heart, that there is union with the Prince 

* Matt. v. 4. 



84 LESSONS FEOM WINTER. 

of life, such a winter of the soul as we now indicate 
can be no more than the outward semblance of death. 
It may kill noxious weeds that are not of Christ, but 
cannot kill any plant that His heavenly Father has 
planted. "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the 
world/'* Whatsoever hath life spiritual from God 
will live through the winter into spring. Whatsoever 
hath a root in Christ will also have a flower. 

One of the Olney Hymns gives expression to the 
thought : — 

" Winter and spring have each their use, 
And each in turn Grod's people know; 
One kills the weeds their hearts produce, 
The other makes their graces grow. 

" Though like dead trees awhile they seem, 
Yet, having life within their root, 
The welcome spring's reviving heam 

Draws forth their blossoms, leaves, and fruit." 

Happily these winters are not periodical; and the 
more buoyant and diligent of God's people have them 
much less frequently and severely than others. Nay, 
one may "grow out" of them altogether. As in the 
progress of a new country's settlement, there is an ame- 
lioration of climate, and the winters become less severe ; 
so, in the progress of piety, the inward climate ame- 
liorates, and it is rare for an advanced Christian to 
undergo a long, unbroken winter of spiritual heaviness. 
More and more does the Light that lighteneth every 

* 1 John v. 4. 



LESSONS FEOM WINTEE. 85 

man exert His powerful influence — kindling, reviving, 
and rejoicing the heart, until the last wintry month is 
over and gone, the snows are melted, the storms are 
hushed, and there opens on the saved soul an endless 
summer of joy in the Lord. 

Some have no sensitiveness to spiritual climate. It 
is because there is no life in them. Life shrinks in the 
cold, and basks in the sunshine ; but lifeless things 
heed not the changes of the rolling year. The stones 
shew no distress in winter, and in summer evince no 
joy. Their surface may be slightly chilled or warmed, 
but no more. So insensible to spiritual climate are all 
they who have a heart of stone, and not a heart of flesh. 

After all, to those who are Christ's, this earth must 
ever be a bleak, wintry place ; for they contrast it with 
that heaven to which they hasten, where there is no 
chill, no grief, no fading away. As Eutherford said, 
" The land of Immanuel is an excellent soil. Oh but 
His heaven lies well and heartsomely, nigh to the Sun, 
the Sun of righteousness ! The fruit of the land is 
excellent ; glory grows in the very outfields thereof. 
Oh, what pure, unmingled joys lie on those eternally- 
springing mountains, and in those gardens of spices ! 
And what do we here ? Why toil so much in gather- 
ing sticks to our nest, when to-morrow we shall be gone 
out of this ?"* Well for us all to think less of our 
earthly nests, and more of our heavenly home 1 

* Euther ford's Letters. 



86 CHRIST AMONG THE WILD BEASTS. 



XVI. 

Christ among \\t Wx\\ %w%\L 

The Evangelist Mark, referring to onr Saviour's sojourn 
of forty days in the wilderness, affirms that He " was 
with the wild beasts." * This is not a mere incident 
mentioned without purpose. It is characteristic of 
Mark, who is no mere copyist or epitomiser of Matthew, 
to record great matters in short clauses, and give hints 
and glimpses of large truths in few and simple words. 

The Lord Jesus was tempted in solitude. No human 
being was near. Satan, the wild beasts, and the angels, 
are said to have been with Him in the dreary wilderness. 
It was at the outset of His ministry : the Seed of the 
woman was about to begin the work of restoration. 
Satan came to Him, not, however, in the disguise of a 
serpent, but as prince of this world. The scene was 
no garden of pleasures, but a wilderness ; and the 
beasts, once submissive to man, were "wild." But 
Satan, and the wild beasts too, were made to feel that 
the second Adam was there. 

* Mark i. 13. 



CHEIST AMONG THE WILD BEASTS. 87 

On the foiling of Satan we may have often reflected 
— not so on the mastery over the wild beasts. Herein 
we have another glimpse of Christ's restoration of Para- 
dise. When man lost the favour of God, he lost his con- 
trol of the creatures. A certain temporary subjection 
of them, indeed, appeared again in the times of Noah, 
who prefigured the Saviour. But after the Deluge, 
they cast off the fear of man. If Daniel in the den 
was unharmed, it was only because God had sent His 
angel to stop the mouths of the lions. But Christ was 
with the wild beasts, ruling them by the energy of His 
own will. The angels did not come to Him to minister 
till after His wilderness trial was successfully past.* 
He ruled the creatures as the second Adam. As the 
Son of man, He had dominion over " the beasts of the 
field/' and all things were " put under His feet/' + 

A golden age is promised to the Church, wherein 
Satan shall be bound, and the lower creatures shall serve 
man in peace. " The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, 
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the 
calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together ; and 
a. little child shall lead them/' J 

Meantime, in the victorious progress of the Gospel, 
the devices of Satan are constantly being baffled, and 
they that would rage against Christ are quelled. Strong 
" bulls of Bashan," and ravening lions, are made to hold 
their peace. Every knee shall bow to the Lord Jesus 

* Matt. iv. 11. f Psalm viii. 6-8. J Isa. xi. 6-9. 



88 CHEIST AMONG THE WILD BEASTS. 

— every tongue shall swear by Him ; " and all that are 
incensed against Him shall be ashamed/' * 

All this, on a smaller scale, takes place in every con- 
verted soul. When into the wilderness of an unre- 
newed heart Jesus comes in the power of the Spirit, 
unruly passions are tamed by His presence. No longer 
can there be the glare of hate, the sting of malice, the 
ravening of violence or revenge. The wild beasts in 
the human breast are mastered by grace. There also 
the Devil, who riots in misrule and violence, is foiled. 
The New Man gains the victory ; and ministering 
angels spread a feast of joy within the soul that be- 
lieves, obeys, and loves. " The wilderness and the soli- 
tary place shall be glad for them ; and the desert shall 
rejoice, and blossom as the rose." -f* 

* Isa. xlv. 23-25. f Isa. xxxv. 1. 



FOBGETFULNESS. 89 



XVII. 

The Almighty entered this grave charge against His 
ancient favoured nation, "My people have forgotten 
me days without number/'* The same charge lies 
with too great force against all Christendom. Habitu- 
ally the objects of human vanity and ambition are in 
view and in recollection, while the Lord God is utterly 
forgotten. The true secret of this lurks in the obsti- 
nate ungodliness of the carnal mind of man. This 
hinders the recollection of God in one or other, or 
all, of the following modes : — 

1. In habitual inattention to Divine truth, when 
presented to the mind. The Bible confessedly treats of 
momentous themes, and affects our highest interests; 
yet it is opened with apathy, and read or heard with 
many wandering thoughts. It follows that no lasting 
impression is made. Yet some try to excuse their igno- 
rance of God and His inspired Word, pleading, " I have 
such (a bad memory," when the memory is quite good 



90 FORGETFULNESS. 

enough, if Divine truths were once well lodged in it by 
due and fixed attention. No memory, however excel- 
lent, can retain that which was never allowed to make 
an impression. As it is written, "We ought to give 
the more earnest heed to the things which we have 
heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." * 

2. In neglect of reflection on Divine truth read or 
heard. It is to the want of after-thought, of mental 
rumination on holy things, that much spiritual leanness 
must be traced. Where there is little meditation on 
God and His Word, it is vain to expect a rich experi- 
ence, or a solid religious character. Those who add to 
attention reflection, and in whom the Word abides, are 
always the healthiest, and strongest, and wisest among 
the children of grace. 

3. In the occupation of the mind with comparative 
trifles. Eemembering a great deal that we ought to 
forget, we forget a great deal that we ought to remem- 
ber, rilling our measures with chaff, we leave no room 
for good and solid grain. The maid thinks of her 
ornaments, and the bride of her attire. The young — and 
not they only, but many to whom increasing years have 
brought no wisdom — fill their thoughts and conversation 
with the fashions and on dits of society, the equipages, 
and amusements, and entertainments of the season; 
and so can have, in their foolishly-occupied minds, no 
grave recollection of that God with whom they have to 

* Heb. ii. 1. 



FOEGETFULNESS. 91 

do. One of the first conditions of godly wisdom is the 
riddance of the soul from the bondage of trifles. We 
must hear many things as if we heard them not, and 
learn to forget that we may learn to remember. It 
was a judicious answer of Themistocles to Simonides, 
who had offered to teach him the art of memory, 
"Rather teach me the art of forgetfulness ; for the 
things which I would not I remember, and cannot 
forget the things I would." 

4. In excess of worldly cares. The minds of men, 
forgetful of God, are not occupied entirely with trifles 
and gaieties. There are grave anxieties regarding suc- 
cess in business, or the attainment of a coveted position, 
that so press upon the soul as to preclude the earnest 
recollection of religious truth. Hence it happens that 
shrewd men, who easily remember whatever affects the 
markets and business of this world, cannot remember 
how to "buy the truth;" and readily quoting the stocks 
and share lists of commercial enterprise, cannot accu- 
rately quote the verses of the blessed Word of God. 
No one can have a religious memory who does not 
check and moderate his worldly cares. 

To shew the evil of forgetfulness, let it be considered 
how much a religiously stored and exercised memory 
tells on the development of the Christian mind and 
formation of the Christian character. It constitutes 
knowledge, it deepens repentance, it fortifies faith, it 
supplies comfort, and moves continual thankfulness. 



92 FOKGETFULNESS. 

It is a solemn thought, that every man's memory holds 
more than it tells. In every mind it is secretly at 
work, laying np its stores, to minister hereafter either 
to eternal pain or to eternal joy. The memory of God's 
mercy refused, God's Sabbaths broken, God's Word de- 
spised, God's love trodden under foot, shall smite with 
anguish the lost in hell. And the memory of God's 
goodness and forbearance on earth — of the warn- 
ings and the winnings, the bereavements and the bene- 
fits, that He sent in love — shall contribute largely to 
the joys of saints in heaven. 

Yea, we surely shall remember 

How He quicken'd us from death — 
How He fann'd the dying ember 

With His Spirit's glowing breath. 
We shall read the tender meaning 

Of the sorrows and alarms, 
As we trod the desert, leaning 

On His everlasting arms. 

And His rest will be the dearer 

When we think of weary ways; 
And His light will seem the clearer 

As we muse on cloudy days. 
Oh ! 'twill be a glorious morrow 

To a dark and stormy day ! 
We shall recollect our sorrow 

As the streams that pass away. 



LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 93 



XVIII. 

IMmg at %\mp mrt Smt. 

This, which seems a paradox, is the daily habit of reli- 
gious minds. They are intent on objects that the eye 
of the body has never seen — objects that have on them 
the stamp of endurance, and that shine in the beauty 
of holiness. No man has this elevation of mind by 
nature. It is given to the Christian in his " effectual 
calling." And indeed no man, though effectually called, 
forms at once the habit of looking at things not seen. 
All habits are formed by steps and degrees ; and this 
is eminently true of the habits of the spiritual mind, 
which must be progressively formed under sanctifying 
grace, and confirmed and braced by the discipline of 
actual Christian life. It is true that in the ardour of 
young piety there is much looking upward — much 
" converse with the skies." But impulses are not to be 
relied on as habits; and the habit of looking up, of 
eyeing God's will and glory, of aiming at spiritual ends 
in temporal concerns, is one that characterises mature, 
well-exercised believers. Young Christians need not 
be discouraged because they have not such a habit. 



94 LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 

Having the right impulse and desire, they will acquire 
the habit in due time, if they cultivate vigilance and 
prayer. To borrow a simile from Dr Cheever : An 
albatross rising from the sea, runs upon the waves at 
first ; but once risen and soaring, how sure and easy 
the movement ! There is scarce a perceptible undula- 
tion of the broad white pinions of the majestic bird. 
Such are the wings of holy habit, wrought out by 
Divine grace, and bearing the regenerated nature, after 
its first struggles, calmly upward to the things not 
seen, and to the very throne of the eternal God. 

The habit of looking at the things not seen as yet, 
confers great benefits on the Christian. 

It lifts him above a base, unworthy life. He who is 
religious in the habits of his mind and heart, cannot 
but live well. Whatever charges may he against men 
professing religion whose profession is false, it can 
never be — it would contradict the surest laws of the 
human mind — that one should really and habitually 
look to the things that are pure and heavenly, and yet 
live in base vices, defiling his own conscience, and 
belying the firmest convictions of his soul. Assuredly, 
in whatever condition or rank of life he is placed by 
Providence, a certain purity and dignity must attach 
to that man's character, whose " citizenship is in 
heaven/'* and whose eyes, anointed with eye-salve, 
look within the veil. 

* Phil. iii. 20. 



LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 95 

This habit of mind also ministers comfort and guid- 
ance to the Christian in changes and adversities. The 
Apostle Paul felt his affliction -to be light, and but for 
a moment, while he looked at things not seen.* The 
same consolation will come to us from the same spring, 
if we draw. The same pole-star will guide and cheer 
us, if we, like Paul, look up. We may learn a lesson 
from the good helmsman in a storm making for a safe 
harbour. His eye is steady on the light that shews 
the entrance. If the ship can keep her head to that 
light, he is of good cheer. It is no matter how the 
wind shrieks, and the vessel trembles in the heavy sea, 
and the breakers thunder on the rocky beach. Not at 
these dangers the helmsman looks, but ever at the port 
of hope, and steers steadily on for the light, till, with a 
throbbing heart, he takes his ship across the bar, and 
gliding past the lighthouse, drops anchor in the smooth 
water within. So should it be with the Christian, 
when storm-tost and agitated among the cares and 
pains of life. Looking at the things that are seen, he 
looks only at waves and rocks, and cannot be com- 
forted. But let him look at the things unseen and 
eternal : let him steer straight for these — steer by that 
light — and his soul, like a weather-beaten but well- 
guided ship, shall ride over the rough foaming waves, 
and at last drop anchor in the harbour of eternal rest. 

Let it be added, that the habit referred to tends 

* 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18. 



96 LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 

greatly to prepare the Christian for his summons to 
die. To die without forethought and preparation is 
the part of a fool. It is appointed unto men once [to 
die ; and he who has any claim to be numbered with 
the wise, will form and cherish the habit now of look- 
ing forward to death, and the things that are after 
death, — 

" Walk thoughtful on the silent, solemn shore 
Of that vast ocean we must sail so soon." 



SEVEN WONDEES. 97 



XIX. 

Shim 

Geeat marvels meet in the character and life of a man 
of God. Seven of these we shall mention. However 
paradoxical they may sound, they are matters of solid 
experience among the godly.* We speak throughout 
not of the nominal, but of the converted, spiritually- 
minded Christian. 

1. His life in the flesh is a life of faith. -f- The 
disciple of Jesus Christ must not "walk after the 
flesh/'' in the sense in which it is opposed to " the 
Spirit ; * yet he must live in the flesh even as others ; 
and in this sphere he manifests the practical value and 
power of faith. The Christian life is one ; and faith in 
the Son of God must animate and guide that life, even 
in the most homely and prosaic pursuits. 

The object of faith is not a dead letter or prescribed 
dogma, but the dying, living, loving Saviour — the Son 
of God, the suffering Surety for men. Him faith appre- 

* See Mason's Select Remains — " The Mystery of a Christian." 
f Gal. ii< 20. 



98 SEVEN WONDERS. 

hends, and, indeed, appropriates, prompting the words, 
" He loved me, and gave himself for me/' On Him, 
by faith, the Christian lives, eating the flesh and drink- 
ing the blood of the Son of man ;* and in the strength 
so received, overcomes the world, and quenches the 
fiery darts of the Wicked. 

2. He sins, and yet he cannot sin. It is written, 
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, 
and the truth is not in us." f But it is also written, 
" Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not ; whosoever 
sinneth (is sinning) hath not seen him, neither known 
him." J The most pious men on earth confess that they 
sin daily. Any other allegation would contradict both 
Scripture and conscience. Yet he that abides in Christ 
is characteristically, and in his style of thought and 
practice, not a sinner but a saint, a new creature, " is 
not sinning," lives not in habitual neglect of duty, or 
wilful transgression of the right. Compassed, indeed, 
with imperfections and infirmities, and bewailing his 
frequent failures and inconsistencies, he yet sincerely 
follows the Lord Jesus in the way of holiness, and 
cannot do otherwise ; for the seed of his regeneration 
remaineth in him, vital, influential, incorruptible, inde- 
structible — he is "born of God." 

3. The less his burden grows, the more he feels it. 
We refer to the burden of indwelling sin. Every 
man who is regenerated parts with the love of sin, and 

* John vi. 53-57. + 1 John i. 8. J 1 John iii. 6. 



SEVEN WONDEKS. 99 

not only obtains the blessing of pardon, but is cleansed 
from inherent corruption. Yet the less the load 
of this corruption becomes, the more does it vex and 
oppress his soul. The reason is plain : his conscience 
has become tender ; his spiritual sensibility is more 
delicate than before. As a little weight bearing on a 
tender part of the body is more irksome than a much 
greater load pressing where bone and muscle are firm, 
so does a comparatively small measure of sinfulness bear 
heavily on the tender conscience of a godly man — more 
heavily than heinous evil oppresses a man unrenewed. 
One does not hear boasts of sanctity from truly en- 
lightened and godly persons. They are more ready to 
bewail remaining corruption and hardness of heart, the 
body of sin and death. Sighs of contrition rise from 
the purest lips ; and confessions of hell-worthiness sin- 
cerely issue from men whose souls are on the edge and 
verge of heaven. 

4. He is in the world, and yet not of the world. The 
Christian is not only born into the world, as other men, 
but also sent into the world by the Lord Christ. He 
is not to shrink from duty in the world, and yet is not 
to be of the world, as his Master, Jesus of Nazareth, 
was not of the world. He is to mingle with general 
society, and actively occupy his due position, and pur- 
sue his daily avocations among men ; and, at the same 
time, must not be " conformed to this world ;" must act 
on unworldly principles ; must follow, in midst of the 



100 SEVEN WONDEE& 

agitations and competitions of this nineteenth, century, 
the unchangeable mandates of his Bible — a man with 
his hands busy on earth, but his heart with his treasure 
in heaven. 

5. When he is weak, then is he strong. The heroes 
of faith, in the days of old, " out of weakness were made 
strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies 
of the aliens/' * The Lord Jesus Himself was no 
stranger to this experience. The hours of His exhaustion 
proved to be the hours of His triumph. It was when 
worn out and an hungered by long fasting in the wil- 
derness, that He encountered and defeated the tempter. 
It was when sitting by Jacob's well, wearied with His 
journey, that He awakened and instructed " the woman 
of Samaria." It was when fainting on the cold ground 
in Gethsemane, that He quelled all reluctance to drink 
the bitter cup, " and there appeared an angel unto 
Him from heaven, strengthening Him/ , -(* Yet once 
more, it was in the hour of apparent exhaustion and 
defeat, when stretched, pallid, and bleeding, on the cross 
— it was then that He was strong to bruise the serpent's 
head, and destroy the works of the devil. The same 
rule applies to all who follow Christ. Weak as they 
are for the conflicts and distresses to which they are 
ordained, they are supported by an invisible arm. 
Sometimes, when they seem to be in extremity, ready 
to faint and fail, they find themselves endowed with a 
strength that nothing can bend or break. This is the 

* Heb. xi. 34. + Luke xxii. 43. 



SEVEN WONDERS. 101 

power of Christ This is the might of the Spirit in the 
inner man. This it is which gives firmness of principle, 
coherence of religions character, fortitncle and patience 
in adversity. The Lord said nnto Paid, " My grace is 
sufficient for thee ; for my strength is made perfect in 
weakness/'* 

6. His afflictions are his best friends. We have 
adverted to the strength with which afflictions may be 
borne. We now point to the good uses they subserve. 

No affliction lights upon a child of God without a 
merciful appointment. It is sent as a fatherly chastise- 
ment or correction ; for " whom the Lord loveth He 
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He re- 
ceiveth."-)- Or, it is sent without reference to any 
particular fault, to promote the believer's general sanc- 
tification. Thus it helps the crucifixion of the flesh. 
It is needful that the flesh, as the opponent of the 
Spirit, be mortified and crucified with its affections and 
lusts ; and every affliction, sent and blessed of God, 
drives another nail into the slowly-dying "flesh," en- 
feebling and exhausting its strength. Further, the 
discipline of trial exercises, and so improves, the Chris- 
tian graces and virtues. It gives an edge to conscience 
and a fervency to prayer. In prosperity and ease, the 
powers of the " new man " begin to languish ; but 
tribulation develops and braces the nobler powers of 
the regenerated soul. " Tribulation worketh patience ; 
and patience, experience ; and experience, hope/'J Afflic- 

* 2 Cor. xii. 9, 10. f Heb. xii. 6. % Rom. v. 3, 4. 



102 SEVEN WONDEKS. 

tion also tends, under the grace of the Spirit of God, to 
wean the heart from this world, and prepare it for that 
which is to come. In loving-kindness, the Lord puts 
some bitterness into the cup of earthly pleasure, lest we 
drink it to our ruin. In very faithfulness, He cuts 
away the tendrils of our affection and hope from the 
earth, and, gathering them in His hand, trains them to 
twine and clasp around His heavenly throne. 

Sustained by such considerations and mercies, the 
godly man faints not in adversities ; he can smile 
through his tears. In the deepest distress, the Com- 
forter is with him, and assures him that the smiting 
rod of God is among the best of the " all things " that 
co-operate for his good. 

7. He is content to live, yet wishing to die. Content 
to live ! — to accomplish his appointed work, to do his 
Lord's will, to promote His cause, and " abide in the 
flesh " among His people for mutual " furtherance and 
joy of faith." But he is willing to die — 

' ' A pilgrim, panting for a rest to come ; 
An exile, anxious for his native home !" 

He must not in impatience or petulance call for death, 
but he may welcome, and even desire it, whenever God 
may see meet to send it, because it shall introduce him 
to the very presence of the Lord Christ in paradise. 
" We are confident, and willing rather to be absent 
from the body, and to be present with the Lord/' * 

* 2 Cor. v. 8. 



HAND IN HAND. 103 



XX. 

in laift. 



The wicked join hand in hand, encourage one another 
in evil modes and practices, concur in paths of sin. 
The individual emboldens himself in ungodliness and 
worldliness of life by the consideration that he is one of 
a multitude, and that his friends are no better or more 
godly than himself. 

Even children greatly strengthen one another in 
disobedience and sin; so much so, that many parents 
are almost afraid to allow their sons and daughters to 
have any associates whatever. Playfellows, of course, 
they must have, but these cannot be too carefully 
selected; for children will soil one another's hearts, 
harden one another's consciences, educate one another 
in evil thoughts and words, deceitful or profane. They 
join their little hands together, the strength of many 
overbearing the scruples of any single one. In public 
schools, in street rambles, and in playgrounds, evil 
communications corrupt the manners and defile the 
hearts of those who are mere children. 



104 HAND IN HAND. 

In the days of wilful and impetuous youth, the same 
mutual encouragement in evil has a most powerful 
effect. Impatience of control is characteristic of that 
stage of life. Eegardless of the advice and experience 
of their elders, the young, especially young men, delight 
to cast off restraints, to walk on the edge of precipices, 
or, cutting the moorings of their boat, without oar or 
rudder, to go wildly clown the stream, little thinking 
of the rapids below in which so many have been lost. 
This gross folly is seriously aggravated by the combina- 
tion and clubbing together of youth, by hand joining 
in hand. Does a young man, into whom good princi- 
ples were instilled, begin to make light of them; does 
he begin to garble his speech with a few oaths, or 
saunter through the streets or fields on Sabbath-days, 
rather than attend the house of God; or take pride in 
the reputation of being " a little wild/' and of u staying 
out late o' nights;" or look on the wine when it is 
red, when it giveth its colour in the cup ? He has not 
arrived at this perilous state of his own inclination 
merely — companions have led him on ; they joined 
hand in hand, laughed at his scruples, took him by the 
arm, and cried, " Come on, and be a man ! " " To-morrow 
shall be as this day, and much more abundant l" He 
went with them, and now is become a fool even as 
they. Alas ! he is also a tempter to others, persuading 
them also to join hands, eager to have as many as pos- 
sible in the same wickedness as himself. 



HAND IN HAND. 105 

In manhood, too, hand joins in hand. A conven- 
tional morality is formed, to which individuals, not 
presuming to be singular, are contented to conform. 
It is held, that what one does another must do, else he 
cannot cope with the world. So men corrupt each 
other, countenancing one another's disingenuousness 
and clever selfishness. Sometimes, in associations and 
" companies," they carry out schemes with joined hands 
which individually they would never undertake or 
justify. 

The aged are more reserved, and in their habits 
more isolated than the young. But they also encou- 
rage one another in old sins, and join hand in hand — 
making a covenant with death that it shall not smite 
them, and with " the overflowing scourge/' that it shall 
not come unto them. 

Holy Scripture says, " Though hand join in hand, 
the wicked shall not be unpunished/'* Numbers gain 
no impunity from the Lord ; union is not strength 
against Him. The sinner is not excusable because he 
is one of many. However men form confederacies 
against Jehovah, they shall be judged and punished 
one by one. 

Let the children of God learn a lesson, and join 
hand in hand for the truth. If there is so much com- 
bination of the wicked in their wickedness, let there be 
combination of the righteous in their righteousness. 

* Prov. xi. 21. 



106 HAND IN HAND. 

Those who have entered at the strait gate, whereto 
they have attained, should walk by the same rule, and 
mind the same thing. Those whom the Lord Jesus " is 
not ashamed to call brethren/' must not " fall out by 
the way/' but " strengthen the weak hands, arid confirm 
the feeble knees," — help and encourage one another in 
the path of life. How fair the sight of the affectionate 
children of an earthly family walking hand in hand, 
the elder assisting the younger over the rough places 
of the way ! We, too, as little children, hand in hand, 
loving and helping each other, must enter into the 
kingdom of heaven. 

Union against the Lord is nought, but on the Lord's 
side is strength. Souls prosper and gain victories by 
sympathy and alliance with other faithful souls of 
God's redeemed. How can religious people be cold or 
unkind one to another — ready to suspect, to whisper 
evil tales, or take part against brethren ? " Beloved, 
let us love one another : for love is of God ; and every one 
that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that 
loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."* 

* 1 John iv. 7, 8. 



A LESSON IN SPIEITUAL WAK. 107 



XXI. 

% %mm in Spritol Mux. 

Theee is a passage in the life of King David which 
may teach us a great lesson in the art of spiritual war. 
When the Philistines, burning to avenge a former de- 
feat, invaded Palestine, the devout king " inquired of 
the Lord." He had recourse to Divine counsel and 
strength. He sought the Lord to be on the side of 
Israel, " when men rose them to slay." The answer to 
his inquiry bade him both do and wait* He was to 
muster his armed men to attack the enemy from the 
most advantageous quarter, making a forced march in 
their rear, and falling upon them at a probably un- 
guarded position. But, while acting to the best of his 
military skill, David was to bear in mind that the 
battle was the Lord's, and that He must give the vic- 
tory. Therefore, after reaching his post under cover of 
a grove or wood, the king was to wait and listen for a 
sign of the Lord's presence and help — " the sound of 
a going in the tops of the mulberry-trees." 

* 2 Sam. v. 22-25, 



108 A LESSON IN SPIRITUAL WAR 

Obedient to the word of the Lord, David had a 
glorious success. He did his part, gat him with his 
troops to the place of watching and prayer : the ap- 
pointed sign failed not; and the king, "bestirring" 
himself, while giving the glory to God, " smote the 
Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gazer/' It 
was their last struggle in the land of Israel. David 
carried the war into the enemy's country, and com- 
pletely subdued those restless and dangerous neigh- 
bours.* 

In every emergency of the soid, in every hour of 
temptation, it is our wisdom to inquire of the Lord ; 
and in every new trial, to inquire again. David, though 
a brave and skilful general, inferior to no captain of 
his age, moved not without prayer against invading 
foes. So in the spiritual war, the contests of the inner 
man: the Christian, however well trained and well fur- 
nished in his own mind, needs not fight, cannot succeed, 
without prayer. Moreover, he who prays will, like 
David, get the victory through his own endeavour, and 
yet not by his own wisdom or strength, but by the 
counsel and might of Jehovah. In the struggles and 
conflicts of the spiritual life, victories are won not by 
doing only or waiting only, but by doing and waiting — 
waiting and doing. We must do our best, or God will 
not help us. We must wait on God for guidance and 
help, or our best doings will miserably fail. The ten- 
* 2 Sam. viii. 1-12. 



A LESSON IN SPIEITUAL WAE. 109 

dency of the present times is to foster the working rather 
than the waiting dispositions, and so to indnce a bustling, 
showy Christianity, that lacks the secret of snccess. 

One should learn also to seize opportunity and push 
advantage, when God indicates a favourable time, so 
that there is " the sound of a going in the tops of the 
mulberry-trees/' In this way the apostles gained their 
mighty victories. Though armed with "the whole 
armour of God," they went not up at once to the great 
contest with Jewish prejudice and Gentile ignorance 
and unbelief. They tarried in the appointed place 
"for the promise of the Father;" and when, on the day 
of Pentecost, they heard " the sound from heaven as of 
a rushing mighty wind, they knew that the Lord was 
with them, and went on boldly" in the Christian cause. 
So is it in all the progress of the Church. There are 
periods of apparent inaction, which yet are far from 
lost. The Church is then waiting at the mulberry 
grove. When the " set time to favour Zion" comes, 
she "bestirs" herself, and makes advance. It is so, 
also, in the life of the individual Christian. There are 
favourable opportunities for which he must watch, and 
on the due improvement of which his religious progress 
dejDends. He who arms himself will yet do nothing 
unless he watches and prays.* But he who both arms 
and waits, listening for prayer's answer, will hear a 
rustling of the tree tops, the sound of the Lord going 

* Eph. vi. 10-18. 



110 A LESSON IN SPIRITUAL WAE. 

before. Bestirring himself then, he will beat back his 
foes, and in God's name do exploits. 

Be admonished then, Christian ! to be at the place 
of prayer, and have your arms and armour on, that you 
may take advantage of the favourable hour, and rout 
your spiritual foes. Have your sails spread, that when 
the fair wind comes you may elude the pirates, and 
stand well out from the quicksands and the rocks, and 
speed forward to the safe harbour of your eternal rest. 



THE HEALING OF HUMANITY. Ill 



XXII. 

®|e paling tf fmmmutg; 

Sickness and sin are closely connected together. They 
are disorders marring the original goodness of crea- 
tion. In the primitive state, which was " very good," 
physical and moral perfections were united. In the 
present condition of the human family, physical and 
moral imperfections and evils are combined. Society, 
corrupted by many vices, and ravaged by many dis- 
eases, presents a terrible contrast to " the first estate." 

We must distinguish, however, between a general 
fact which we know, and particular individual applica- 
tions of a wide principle, such as we are not competent 
or warranted to make. 

It is the general fact, that disease is one of the 
results of the entrance of sin. Death is by sin : and 
what is disease but a partial or approximate death? 
It is sin that, like the box of Pandora, has scattered 
direful pains and woes over the whole world. Some 
forms of sin lead by direct natural consequence to 
disease. Such are intemperance and unchastity, which 



112 THE HEALING OF HUMANITY. 

waste, degrade, and sometimes horribly torment the 
human frame. Some offences have provoked the Lord 
to inflict diseases as penalties. Thus Miriam was 
struck with leprosy because she murmured against 
Moses ; * the men of Ashdod, and other Philistines, 
were smitten with " emerods " because they desecrated 
the ark of God ;■(* King Jehoram, the unworthy son of 
Jehoshaphat, was visited with an incurable disease for 
his wickedness.]: In the New Testament, also, St Paul 
teaches that disease and death are sent upon a Church 
when the Lord's Supper is administered or observed 
without due reverence and godly fear — " For this 
cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many 
sleep/' § 

Specific applications of the general principle, how- 
ever, it is not for us to make. We are not to pro- 
nounce judgment — that sickness enters this house, or 
lights on that individual, as a judgment for a certain 
specified offence. We are incompetent to draw such 
conclusions, and in venturing upon them may violate 
both charity and truth. We look on outward appear- 
ances, and cannot have the materials for judging God's 
ways with our fellow-men. One who enjoys robust 
health and undisturbed prosperity may be an enemy of 
God, who is secretly " reserved to the day of judgment 
to be punished." Another, who is sorely and variously 

* Numb. xii. 10. % 2 Ckron. xxi. 12-19. 

1 1 Sam. t. § 1 Cor. xi. 30. 



THE HEALING OF HUMANITY. 113 

afflicted, may be not punished at all, but " chastened 
of the Lord " in love. 

Sickness has its uses and its alleviations ; neverthe- 
less it is a disorder, and humanity cannot be blessed 
till sickness with sin is utterly abolished. Such an 
abolition is hoped and longed for by the Christian 
heart, and it is to be accomplished only through Christ 
the Physician-Saviour. When He was on earth, our 
Lord shewed Himself able and willing to cope with all 
the forms of disease, and remedy all the outbreaks of 
human misery.* Christ refused none who came or 
were brought to Him to be healed. 

" The dumb began to speak, the blind to see, 

And the lame leap'd, and pain arid darkness fled; 
The mourner's eye grew bright with glee, 

And from the tomb awoke the wondering dead." 

Christ, however, was no mere physician, but a 
Physician- Saviour. He dealt with sin as the radical 
disease of the human race. When He declared, 
" They that be whole need not a physician, but they 
that are sick/' He further explained His meaning in 
the words, " Por I am not come to call the righteous, 
but sinners to repentance/' ■(- Our Lord's cure of the 
paralytic at Capernaum is a familiar instance of the 
removal of sin and sickness together. " He said unto 
the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." 
Again, He " saith to the sick of the palsy, I say unto 

* Matt. iv. 23, 24 ; Mark i. 32-34, vi. 54-56. f Matt. ix. 12, 13. 

H 



114 THE HEALING OF HUMANITY. 

thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into 
thine house/'* It may be added, that the same con- 
nexion between sickness and sin, the same linking 
together of the removal of the one with the removal of 
the other, appeared in the ministrations of the primi- 
tive elders of the Church. As it is written, " Is any 
sick among you? let him call for the elders of the 
church ; and let them pray over him, anointing him 
with oil in the name of the Lord : and the prayer of 
faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him 
up ; and if he have committed sins, they shall be for- 
given him/' -f- 

The power of Christ is put forth still to soothe and 
relieve human pains, and to restore the disturbed har- 
monies of our physical and moral nature. His dis- 
ciples, indeed, are subject to disease as other men ; 
but it is disease without the sting of unforgiven sin, 
suffered for a season, that their patience may be 
proved, and God glorified in them. Even if their 
sickness be unto death, they are sustained by the hope 
of that which is beyond and after death. They look 
for a city which hath foundations, as it is promised, 
" Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation/' j 
A few more pangs, a few more groans, and the sufferer 
who is in Christ enters the gates of pearl, and shall 
never suffer any more for ever. Why ? There shall 
be no sin there. " The people that dwell therein are 

* Mark ii. 5-11. t James v. 14, 15. % Isa. xxxiii. 20. 



THE HEALING OF HUMANITY. 115 

forgiven their iniquity/'* No more shall they be 
tempted or inclined to commit iniquity. This is the 
law of the city — " There shall in no wise enter into it 
any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh 
abomination, or maketh a lie : but they which are 
written in the Lamb's book of life."" -f- 

This is the key to the future blessedness, just as 
the entrance of defilement and untruth into the world 
that now is, is the key to our present wretchedness. 
In the new dwelling-place there will be no spot, no 
wrinkle, or any such thing — no guilt, no stain, no lie, 
and therefore no curse, no pain, no grief. The heirs 
of the kingdom, " the nations of the saved," healed by 
the leaves of the Tree of Life, and rejoicing in its 
fruit, stand before the throne in the health and vigour 
of immortality — in holy beauties that never fade away ; 
" and the inhabitants shall not say, I am sick." J 

* Isa. xxxiii. 24. f Rev. xxi. 27. + Isa. xxxiii. 24. 



116 THE VIVIFYING POWEE OF THE GOSPEL. 



XXIII. 

Sty O'Mfjpg pte jof ik (Sflsgcl. 

Peehaps tliere is in nature no better expression of 
exuberant life and strength than the flow of a mighty- 
river. The rocks, and forests, and giant mountains, 
suggest ideas of power, but of power restricted in place, 
without motion, without impetus. But what beauty in 
the shining river, what grandeur in the rolling flood ! 
— ever moving as of some living will in itself, never ex- 
hausted or faint; without weariness pouring itself by day 
and night down wild ravines, and through quiet mea- 
dows ; now watering a green valley, where trees skirt its 
banks, now passing through villages or towns, with 
houses and gardens on either shore, but never resting, 
ever rolling on to the bosom of the deep sea ! Indeed, 
the great rivers of the world have so impressed the un- 
tutored mind with awe, and so blessed and enriched 
the lands through which they have their course, that 
they have been personified and worshipped. It has 
been so with the Nile, the Ganges, even the turbid 
Tiber. Living, as we do, on the bank of a nobler river 



THE VIVIFYING POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 117 

than any of these — the St Lawrence — -we can sympa- 
thise, not certainly with superstitious worship, but with 
a warm enthusiasm in favour of a mighty stream, that 
fills the eye, and gives wealth and beauty to the land. 

The Bible tells of a river that "went out of Eden 
to water the garden," and parted, and became four 
streams ;* throws a sacred memory round the little 
river of Jordan, and even the soft-flowing rill of Siloam ; 
and not only so, but celebrates a river above all Greek, 
above all Roman fame — a river, " the streams whereof 
make glad the city of God/'-f- 

" The river of God is full." We mean by this not a 
river of pleasures far away in heaven, but a river of 
heavenly grace on earth, the grace of salvation — a 
living, flowing stream, useful and pleasant to all who 
frequent its banks, and a river that gives life whither- 
soever it comes. £ The source of this river is in the 
sanctuary of God, or place of His abode. Its increase, 
as it rolls, is obtained not from tributaries flowing into 
it, but entirely from the fulness of its original fountain. 
Its course is through a barren land, illustrating the 
efflux of Divine grace on a dead and sinful world. As 
the barren soil through which the river in EzekieFs 
vision passed became fertile, so, under the vivifying, 
fertilising, and healing grace of God, the wastes of 
human nature, human society, human life, are made to 
live again, and flourish in holy beauties. 

* Gen. ii. 10. f Psalin xlvi. 4. $ Ezek. xlvii. 9. 



118 THE VIVIFYING POWEE OF THE GOSPEL. 

What is the life of a nation without this grace ? Let 
history speak. The powerful nations of antiquity are 
powerful no more. They had genius, courage, letters, 
even art and civilisation; but having no moral health, 
and no spiritual life, they had no real endurance, and 
have proved no better than brilliant failures at last. 
In so far as any modern nations have more vitality than 
the ancient, it is due to their possession of a true reli- 
gion — their contact with the flowing water of life. 
True it is, that a nation unvisited by the stream from 
the sanctuary of God may obtain a certain extension 
and eminence ; but it is frivolous, or treacherous, or 
ferocious, or immoral and corrupt; and no form of 
political constitution, or change of j)olitical rulers, will 
remedy the case of such a nation, so long as the mass 
of the people continue ungodly, and the highest motives 
are not brought to bear on the private and public 
conscience and will. We are well convinced that, even 
in countries which present the most favourable religious 
aspect, the most serious public danger comes from the 
ungodliness of the people at large. The true health of 
nations is in virtue; the true wealth of nations is in 
moral culture and the fear of God. History will corro- 
borate the doctrine of Scripture, that the only inexhaust- 
ible spring of public life, powers, dignity, and self- 
government, is in the knowledge and acknowledgment 
of our Lord and His Christ. Flowing through the 
heart of a people, the stream of pure religion will heal 



THE VIVIFYING POWEK OF THE GOSPEL. 119 

that which is bitter or corrupt, will cause everything to 
live, impart soundness to all the internal relations of 
the body domestic and politic, and will gradually give 
rise to good government, equal laws, just institutions, 
a pure literature, a warm benevolence, a diligent atten- 
tion to the arts of peace, — in a word, will ensure a 
high and broad and graceful civilisation. If it is not 
practicable to have a truly national Church, we still 
must have, for the public weal, a sincerely received 
national religion. Through the deep courses of a na- 
tion's convictions, "let judgment run down as waters, 
and righteousness as a mighty stream." * 

Let us reflect, not only on the life of nations, but on 
the life of the Church. The most orderly and orthodox 
Church on earth is a formal, almost useless institution, 
unless it be vivified by the touch of the waters flowing 
from Mount Zion — the present grace of God, the supply 
of the Spirit of Christ Jesus. There was no charge of 
disorder or heterodoxy against the Church in Sardis, 
yet it is written, " Thou hast a name that thou livest, and 
art dead."+ That Church maintained a good reputa- 
tion; the ordinances of the gospel were therein regularly 
dispensed, and, we presume, the doctrines of the gospel 
accurately avowed. No heresies of Nicolaitanes or 
others are reprehended at Sardis, as at Ephesus, 
Pergamos, and Thyatira. All things were there but the 
one needful thing — life. The form of godliness was 

* Amos v. 24. f Rev. iii. 1. 



120 THE VIVIFYING POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 

complete, but power thereof there was none. There 
was a full-length shadow of religion, but the substance 
was not there. With the credit and semblance of life, 
the Sardian Church was spiritually dead. 

A Church thus dead cannot long remain really 
orthodox, but it may continue to profess a sound tradi- 
tional creed. First piety declines, gives way before the 
encroachments of a cold, secular spirit ; then the doc- 
trines of grace are disliked, concealed, or corrupted, 
while yet the old standards of belief are not formally 
and openly renounced. But the word of Christ is not 
there in power; and without this word in power, with- 
out the quickening Spirit, a Church has no energy, no 
beauty, no fruitf illness, no vitality; whereas, with this, 
the waste place becomes as a well-watered garden, and a 
field which the Lord hath blessed. 

It is the way of our Lord to keep His Church in 
constant dependence on Himself for life and godli- 
ness, and so to draw forth the prayers of all faithful 
ones for quickening grace — a grace which flows from 
His seat, and, instead of spending itself, still swells and 
deepens as it flows, diffusing its healing waters from 
house to house and heart to heart, and covering all its 
banks with unfading and fruitful trees. 

The life of the individual soul is imparted and main- 
tained by the same grace. The blessed man " shall be 
like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth 
forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not 



THE VIVIFYING POWEE OF THE GOSPEL. 121 

wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."* It 
is the root in the river that sends sap and vital force 
through all the tree, even to its utmost boughs, yielding 
rich foliage and abundant fruit. 

Every tree of righteousness must have its own con- 
nexion with the river of life through its own roots; 
every Christian must have connexion and communion 
with the Lord in the grace of the Spirit, through his 
own faith. A pastor's roots will not draw up enough 
for the flock, or a father's enough for his children. 
One by one, the Christian people must have their roots 
in the river of God. There is room enough for all of 
them on the banks thereof. Paul desired that the 
Colossians might be " rooted in Christ," and that the 
Ephesians might be "rooted and grounded in love." 
This desire have all they who know the Lord's grace, 
that others may obtain like precious faith, and like 
spiritual strength, till the river of God's pleasure on 
earth is thickly lined on either shore with good and 
pleasant trees. As it was in the prophetic vision 
already alluded to, "By the river, upon the bank 
thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all 
trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall 
the fruit thereof be consumed : it shall bring forth new 
fruits according to his months, because their waters 
they issued out of the sanctuary : and the fruit thereof 
shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine." *j- 

* Psalm i. 3. f Ezek. xlvii. 12. 



122 THE VIVIFYING POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 

In Paradise restored, the river shall flow clear as 
crystal from the very throne of God and of the Lamb, 
and pass no longer through a salt and waste land, but 
through a region and city of holiness, where there is no 
more curse.* 

" happy harbour of God's saints ! 

sweet and pleasant soil ! 

In thee no sorrow can be found, 

No grief, no care, no toil ! 

" Quite through the streets, with pleasant sound, 
The flood of life doth flow ; 
Upon whose banks, on every side, 
The trees of life do grow. 

" These trees each month do yield their fruit, 
For evermore they spring ; 
And all the nations of the world 
To thee their honours bring. 



' Jerusalem, God's dwelling-place, 
Full sore I long to see ; 
that my sorrows had an end, 
That I might dwell in thee ! " 



* Rev. xxii. 1-3. 



THE UNBEOKEN BONES OF JESUS. 123 



XXIV. 

%\t Itttato § ms j&f l«ns. 

Whosoeyee has a broken heart shall never have a 
broken bone. " The Lord is nigh unto them that are 
of a broken heart ; and saveth such as be of a contrite 
spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous : but 
the Lord delivereth him out of them alL He keepeth 
all his bones : not one of them is broken/'* In various 
psalms, the pious in affliction speak of " bones vexed/ 7 
" bones consumed/' " bones waxed old/' " bones burned 
as an hearth," and " cleaving to the skin." But the 
righteous, though cast down, are not destroyed ; their 
bones may be " vexed," but " not one of them is broken." 
It is true that David in a certain place refers to his 
bones as broken. -J- But it was thus with him when he 
sinned, when he fell from his steadfastness, and thereby 
forfeited the privileges of a righteous man. So soon as 
he is penitent — so soon as he gets from God, and pre- 
sents to God, a broken spirit, a broken and contrite 
heart — he prays for restoration, and expects even his 

* Psalm xxxiy. 18-20. f Psalm li. 8. 



124 THE UNBROKEN BONES OF JESUS, 

broken bones to come together again, and " rejoice " in 
God his Saviour. 

Not only in providence does God keep His people 
from harm, sending His angels to encamp around them, 
but He also succours and sustains them in His grace. 
Though at times their " bones are vexed " — i. e. their 
hearts are disquieted and distressed — a word of gracious 
promise comes to them, that their bones may not be 
broken ; in other words, that their souls may not de- 
spair. Christ knows well how to give health and quiet 
to His disciples in the inner man. His "pleasant 
words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and 
health to the bones/' * 

Of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, it is emphatically 
true that " Jehovah keepeth all His bones ; not one of 
them is broken." This was prefigured in the passover, 
and fulfilled on the cross. At the first institution of 
the paschal rite, this Divine command was given regard- 
ing the lamb, the type of Jesus Christ, " Neither shall 
ye break a bone thereof/' -f- In the wilderness of Sinai 
the Lord repeateth this injunction : " They shall leave 
none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone of 
it." | This was strictly fulfilled on the cross, when 
" Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us." In His 
sacred body, His flesh was pierced, and His blood shed ; 
but not one of His bones was broken. The fact is ex- 
plicitly narrated in the Gospel of John : " The Jews 

* Prov. xvi. 24. f Exod. xii. 46. % Num. ix. 12. 



THE UNBKOKEN BONES OE JESUS. 125 

therefore, because it was the preparation, that the 
bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sab- 
bath-day (for that Sabbath-day was an high day), be- 
sought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that 
they might be taken away. Then came the soldiers, 
and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which 
was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, 
and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his 
legs. . . . For these things were done, that the scripture 
should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken/'* 
Thus the " Lamb of God " died, a complete and unbroken 
sacrifice for sin. Jesus, having power to lay down His 
life, willed to die, gave up the ghost, before the soldiers 
came. 

This is not all. The Lord Christ has also a mystical 
body, all the members whereof are kept by the grace 
and power of God. 

Like His physical body, the body mystical of Christ 
is divinely formed. In remote eternity it was designed 
or " prepared," according to the election of grace. The 
members were written in God's book when as yet there 
was none of them. The body thus prepared is fearfully 
and wonderfully made. It is not of blood, or of the 
will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God. In 
its formation there is an overshadowing power of the 
Highest. The grace of the Holy Ghost, in the regene- 
ration of sinners, is continually making and moulding a 

* John xix. 31-33, 36. 



126 THE UNBKOKEN BONES OF JESUS. 

body for Christ. The " new birth" is a birth into the 
spiritual being and body of the Redeemer. All who 
are truly born again are united to Jesus Christ, as 
" members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones."* 

This mystical body is ever growing. Christ must 
increase. There are constant accessions to the Church, 
which is His body ; and by the grace flowing from 
the Vital Head, and the continual and harmonious 
exercise of the various parts and members, the growing 
body strengthens day by clay, " increasing with the in- 
crease of God." As it is written, " From the head, 
even Christ, the whole body fitly joined together and 
compacted by that which every joint supplieth, accord- 
ing to the effectual working in the measure of every 
part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of 
itself in love."f 

The mystical body of the Lord, thus formed and 
increased, is a suffering body on earth. Like His 
natural body, it is lightly esteemed, wounded, even 
crucified." All that are Christ's are made to feel the 
strangeness of the world, the malice of the devil, and 
the sharpness of the cross. His spiritual members 
suffer with Him, if so be they may also be glorified 
together. 

But here we perceive another point of analogy. The 
mystical body, like the natural body of Christ, though 
pierced is not parted, and comes through all its tribula- 
* Eph. v. 30. f Eph. iv. 16. 



THE UNBROKEN BONES OF JESUS. 127 

tion without a broken bone. That which took place 
literally on the cross of Calvary, takes place spiritually 
in universal Christian experience. However severely 
afflictions bear on the people or members of Christ, they 
cannot separate them from Him, or destroy their hope 
of glory. The bones may be sore vexed, but " not one 
of them is broken/' 

The doctrine of the union of believers to their Lord 
involves, as a consequence, the doctrine of their preser- 
vation unto eternal life. If in Holy Writ this union is 
represented as a betrothal, it is "for ever;"* and 
when it is likened to a body with joints and limbs, it is 
a body not to be mangled or divided. Christians must 
have discipline, suffering, chastisement ; but " there is 
no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus/' -f 
We rely on the sure word of the Lord, that not one, 
not the least member of Christ, shall be lost ; not one 
of Christ's bones, not the smallest, not a little finger of 
His body, shall ever be broken. 

In the great day of the Lord, all the living body that 
has come through tribulation, death, and resurrection 
without a broken bone, shall be revealed. When the 
Head shall appear, all the members shall appear with 
Him in glory. J A glorious sight indeed ! — Mystical 
Christ complete ! and the Eedeemer and the redeemed 
rejoicing together in the fruition of the promises of 
God! 

*Hos. ii. IP. f Rom. viii. 1. J Col. iii. 4. 



128 THE LOED'S VINEYAKD. 



XXV. 

©e £ axVs DmeprtL 

The Lord God has planted his Church as " a choice 
vine " in the earth. During the first ages of the 
world, His vineyard was not hedged in — there was no 
organisation of a religious community. But the call- 
ing of Israel out of Egypt marked a very important 
epoch in Church history. " Thou hast brought a vine 
out of Egypt ; thou hast cast out the heathen, and 
planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst 
cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land/'* 
This vine never perishes. There are diversities of dis- 
pensation. The Jewish aspect of religion has been 
abrogated ; but the vine planted of old shall never die 
out. Every plant which the heavenly Eather has not 
planted shall be rooted up, but this vine flourishes and 
puts forth tender grapes. 

This is due entirely to the Divine care. Jehovah 
demands, "What could have been done more to my vine- 
yard, that I have not done in it ? "-(- Eor the preserva- 

* Psalm lxxx. 8, 9. + Isa. v. 4. 



THE lord's vineyard. 129 

tion of the truth through centuries of the world's gross 
idolatry, religion was connected with the Jewish polity. 
Even the geographical position of Palestine hedged in 
the people and Church of Israel — guarded as was that 
good land by the Jordan and the two lakes on the 
east, the desert and mountainous Idumea on the south, 
the Mediterranean Sea on the west, and by Anti- 
Libanus on the north. Besides this, the peculiar 
ecclesiastical system, the Theocratic polity of Israel, 
strongly fenced in the vineyard of the Lord. With 
this external fence of separation and protection, every- 
thing essential to the internal completeness of a vine- 
yard was also supplied. The Owner thereof made a 
wine-press, digged a wine-vat, and built a tower from 
which watchmen might guard the fruit. In other 
words, God furnished to His Church, even in the Old 
Testament times, all the advantages needful in those 
times for life and godliness. If fruits were not duly 
rendered to the Divine Owner, the blame lay, not on 
the appurtenances of the vineyard, as though they 
were defective, but on the misconduct of "the vine- 
keepers/' and the negligence of the men of Judah and 
inhabitants of Jerusalem. "For the vineyard of the 
Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of 
Judah his pleasant plant : and he looked for judgment, 
but behold oppression ; for righteousness, but behold a 
cry/' * 

* Isa. v. 7. 
I 



130 THE lokd's vineyard. 

The vine-keepers in ancient times were the priests 
Levites, and rulers of the people. The interests of the 
Church and of true religion were confided to them ; 
the vineyard was let out to them that they might 
cultivate it, and obtain a yield of good fruit, as a 
revenue for their Lord. When the keepers of the Old 
Testament vineyard proved unfaithful in their office, 
so that nought was yielded but wild grapes — when 
they at last became so wicked, as not only to stone the 
prophets, the servants, but even to kill the Son, the 
Heir — God made a great change in His vineyard. 
Taking down the fence of Judaism, He planted the 
vine in the lands of the Gentiles. At the same time 
He changed the keepers thereof, the husbandmen.* 
In lieu of the Jewish priests and elders, the Lord has 
given charge of His vineyard, in New Testament 
ages, to apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and 
teachers. In our own time, as many as " labour in 
word and doctrine/' walking in the steps of apostolic 
belief and example, are not only builders under the 
Master-Builder, and shepherds under the Chief Shep- 
herd, bat also vine-dressers under the Great Keeper of 
the vineyard. There is need of them. The vine is a 
plant that cannot endure neglect, that requires constant 
and minute attention. In every season of the year it 
must be watched and tended with assiduous care. In 
like manner the interests of religion, of the kingdom 

* Matt. xxi. 41-45. 



THE LOED'S VINEYAED. 131 

of God on earth, demand the watchful and untiring 
assiduities of faithful men, who will give themselves 
wholly to the work of the vineyard. 

This is not all. The Lord himself from heaven 
watches over His choice vine. He makes the Sun of 
righteousness to shine, and the rains of grace to 
descend, that His "pleasant plant" may grow and 
fructify. It is God who "gives the increase." "In 
that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine. I 
the Lord do keep it ; I will water it every moment : 
lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day."* 

The Divine " keeping " is rendered necessary by the 
serious dangers to which the Lord's vineyard on earth 
is exposed. Scripture mentions three such dangers : — 

1. The boar out of the forest. As it is written, 
" The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild 
beast of the field doth devour it/'-f- This is a figure 
of the violent persecution by which the Church of God 
has suffered. From the forests of heathenism the 
invader rushed again and again on Palestine, and the 
foot of the wild boar trod down the ancient vineyard of 
the Lord. In Christian times, the same violence has 
often been repeated. The havoc made of the primitive 
Church by Jewish and Pagan enemies — the suppression 
of the truth after the Eeformation, in various Euro- 
pean countries, by the sword drawn at the instigation 
of Papal Eome — and the cruelties inflicted on young 

* Isa. xxyii. % 3. f Psalm lxxx. 13. 



132 the loed's vineyard. 

Christian communities on heathen shores in our own 
time — are all so many rushes of " the boar out of the 
wood/' enraged against the heritage of Christ. 

Yet the Lord has proved a faithful protector of His 
" pleasant plant." His vine, trodden down by violence 
of persecution, has often revived with more vigour and 
beauty than before. History contains many instances 
in which injustice and attack have tended to the fur- 
therance of the gospel. God, at such time as pleaseth 
Him, stays the oppressor ; but even while the oppres- 
sion lasts, and the boar out of the wood seems to work 
his will, Jehovah restrains his wrath, and overrules all 
for good. The experience of this in the early Pagan 
persecutions of the Christian Church is boldly expressed 
in the words of Tertullian — "Plures efficimur, quo ties 
metimnr a vobis ; semen est sanguis Christianorum/' 

The Divine Keeper of the vineyard has defeated, and 
will defeat, the cruelty of " the boar out of the wood/' 

2. A second danger lies in the ravages of " the 
little foxes/' These make no crashing sound like the 
wild boar, give no sign of their approach or presence, 
but enter unobserved, and soon spoil the vines, by 
preying on the tender grapes. "Take us the foxes, 
the little foxes, that spoil the vines : for our vines have 
tender grapes." * 

Poxes represent all cunning deceits of error and sin ; 
and the "little foxes" are those so-called little sins 

* Cant. ii. 15. 



THE lord's yineyaed. 133 

which eat away the tender grape, the good promise of 
religion in youth. Great and glaring offences are more 
easily watched against and resisted ; but the little foxes 
glide in, and are in the heart of the vineyard, busy in 
destruction, before we know ; in other words, minute 
acts of inconsistency grow insensibly into habits, and 
work great mischief while we are unaware. The little 
foxes creep in at the smallest hole in the fence ; little 
sins creep in at the smallest crevice of unwatchfulness, 
and, once in, make sad havoc of young religion, of 
the tender grape. Therefore the Lord, who watches 
over His vineyard, cries, " Take us the foxes, the little 
foxes \" Let these little ones of Babylon be dashed 
against the stones ! 

3. The third danger comes from unfaithful pastors 
or false husbandmen : " Many pastors have destroyed 
my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, 
they have made my portion of desire a desolate wil- 
derness/'* 

In the days of old the Church was wasted and cor- 
rupted by false prophets and unworthy ministers of 
religion : hireling shepherds, that fed themselves, and 
not the flock — lying prophets, telling " visions of their 
own heart" — keepers of the vineyard, unfaithful to their 
trust ; — such were the men to whom Scripture ascribes 
the declension and corruption of the Jewish religion. 
The New Testament also contains frequent warnings 

* Jer. xii. ]0. 



134 THE loed's vineyard. 

against false apostles and teachers, " deceitful workers/' 
"seducing spirits;" and the history of the Church 
since the Christian era has shewn how much these 
warnings are needed, in the baneful effects wrought in 
the Church by men who have alleged themselves to be 
its only trusty guardians. Heresies, strifes, persecu- 
tions, and bigotries have commonly entered the Church 
through irreligious and unworthy clergy. Not even 
the boar out of the wood has done so much harm to 
the vineyard as popes and priests, and unconverted or 
cold-hearted Protestant ministers have done. Clerical 
pretensions and ecclesiastical garments may be wrapped 
about men who are no true keepers of the vineyard. " Be- 
loved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether 
they are of God ; because many false prophets are gone 
out into the world."* 

The end for which the vineyard exists is the produc- 
tion of fruit. All the plantation, culture, defence, and 
care are pointed to this result — "much fruit." "Solomon 
had a vineyard in Baal-hamon," and from each of the 
keepers received a thousand pieces of silver as a return 
for the produce of the vincf* Christ our King has, by 
the ministry of His servants, a rich vintage, a grateful 
return for His manifold grace, so that His soul " is 
satisfied." The entire dispensation of saving mercy, 
the culture of the vineyard, and the labours of all 
faithful husbandmen therein, unitedly tend to one good 

*1 John iv. 1. tCant. vi;i. 11. 



THE loed's vineyard. 135 

result — the increase of godliness, to the glory of the 
Father in heaven, and the joy of the ascended Saviour. 
In the time of vintage, when the clusters of ripe grapes 
shall be gathered in, all heaven shall ring with the shout 
of praise — " Grace, grace unto it ! " 



1.36 THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR. 



XXVI. 

%\t gngfyt anir Itoutiwf Star. 

All thoughtful men have reverenced the stars. The 
mind is soothed and awed by the expressive quiet of a 
starry sky. Not the poets only, but all men of reflec- 
tion and sensibility, have imitated the son of Jesse in 
the night watches : "I consider thy heavens, the work 
of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast 
ordained."* 

In the noble imagery of Scripture, the lights of the 
firmament are made preachers of righteousness : " The 
Lord God is a Sun;"*)" the Church is to be " fair as 
the Moon. "J One beautiful emblem in the sky the 
Lord Jesus has appropriated to Himself — the stead- 
fast day spring from on high : "I am the Bright and 
Morning Star."§ Many are the stars in the sky, one 
differing from another in glory, but this excelleth them 
all — the chief among ten thousand, and " altogether 
lovely/' 

* Psalm viii. 3. + Psalm lxxxiv. 11. 

$ Cant. vi. 10. § Rev. xxii. 16. 



THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR. ] 37 

Two clays are given to the Church — a clay of grace, 
and a day of glory. The dayspring of each is the 
appearing of the " same Jesus " in His first and second 
advents. 

From the sad era of the Fall, darkness settled on the 
human race. Losing original righteousness, man lost 
the light of life. The promise, indeed, of a victorious 
Seed of the woman, given to our first parents before 
they left the garden of Eden, relieved the gloom of their 
expulsion. The hope kindled by this and other promises 
was a light in darkness to the Church of the Old Testa- 
ment, while thick clouds yet covered the sky. The 
ancient believers were " saved by hope/' the hope of 
the Lord's appearing. So one of them wrote, "My 
soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch 
for the morning/'* 

The ancient Pagan world lay in gross darkness. It 
was unhappy, indeed, and restless : for human souls 
were all made for light, and its philosophers, and 
priests, and people alike groped and stumbled in the 
gloom ; now glorying in some poor lantern of this 
world, as if it were a planet in heaven — now rushing 
after some ignis fatuus, till they lost their way more 
hopelessly than before. 

The fulness of time brought the world's second clay- 
break, and the Church's first daybreak in Judea. We 
know that in nature the morning star appears at its due 

* Psalm cxxx. 6. 



138 THE BEIGHT AND MORNING STAR. 

time in silence, without clamour or ostentation — no 
thunder peals through heaven to herald its approach. 
So did Jesus come. In Bethlehem-Judah, and in the 
very stable of the inn, was the nativity of the Son of 
the Highest — the dawn of redemption, the rise of the 
Bright and Morning Star. 

" For Thou wert born of woman ! Thou didst come, 
Holiest ! to this world of sin and gloom ; 
Not in Thy dread omnipotent array, 

And not by thunders strew'd, 

Was Thy tempestuous road ; 
Nor indignation burnt before Thee on Thy way ; 

But Thee, a soft and naked child, 

Thy mother, undefiled, 

In the rude manger laid to rest 

From off he* virgin breast." * 

Obscure as was the nativity, there were signs and 
tokens sufficient that a good era for man had arrived. 
A multitude of the heavenly host sang praises when 
the Star of our redemption rose. The shepherds, angel- 
taught, saw the Babe in the manger, and wondered. 
Magi from the East, star-guided, fell down before the 
Divine Infant, and worshipped ; and aged Simon in 
the temple, holding the virgin's Child in his arms, 
spake of Him as the " light to lighten the Gentiles, 
and the glory of God's people Israel. "+ 

Signs of enmity soon appeared from the powers and 
lovers of darkness. These could not love the Lord 

* Milman. t Luke ii. 32. 



THE BEIGHT AND MOENING STAE. 139 

Jesus, and wished Him extinct because He disturbed 
them with His light. The attempt was made to 
destroy Jesus in His infancy. Murderous Herod tried 
to quench that Morning Star in blood, when first it 
faintly rose in Bethlehem. The demons, too, whose 
element is darkness, complained that the Star had 
appeared too soon, exposing their malignant tyranny : 
" What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of 
God ? art thou come hither to torment us before the 
time V* Wicked men were no more glad than the 
very demons to see the day break. By long habit 
men become so inured to moral darkness, that it is 
painful and irksome to them to look on heaven's pure 
light. It was thus with the elders and chief priests, 
the scribes and Pharisees. They felt the presence of 
the Lord Jesus a constant rebuke to themselves ; hence 
their plots to weaken His influence, to blacken His 
reputation, to eclipse the provoking radiance of that 
bright Star, and, if possible, extinguish it utterly in 
the darkness of death. These plots had their consum- 
mation and apparent triumph in the crucifixion. But 
from that hour, when all seemed lost, there was given 
a brighter lustre and a more extended radiance to our 
exalted Morning Star. 

It must be acknowledged, that the day ushered in 
by the first advent of the Saviour has not been a 

* Matt. Tiii. 29. 



140 THE BEIGHT AND MORNING STAR. 

day without clouds. The brightness has been inter- 
cepted and concealed from many ; the powers of dark- 
ness struggle hard and long to impede the growing 
light. 

The Church looks forward to another and more per- 
fect day, to be ushered in by the second advent of the 
Son of man. Simon Peter has given directions to 
Christians how to walk " till the day dawn, and the 
day-star arise in your hearts/'* He points to the 
time of Christ's appearing in the resurrection morn — 
" Behold ! he cometh with clouds/' but the clouds 
shall not hide His radiance from the eyes of angels or 
men, for " every eye shall see Him." - )* " The sun shall 
be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, 
and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of 
the heavens shall be shaken : and then shall appear the 
sign of the Son of man in heaven/' J 

Ungodly men and unclean spirits may fear that 
dawn of day, but it is an object of earnest hope to 
believers. Not more ardently did the Old Testament 
worthies wait for the first, than the New Testament 
Church ought to wait for the second coming of the 
Lord. " Joy cometh in the morning/' Eeunion of 
the long-parted cometh in the morning. Crowns of 
righteousness come in the morning to all who love 
the Lord's appearing. Thereafter no clouds or dark- 

* 2 Peter i. 19. f Rev. i. 7. % Matt. xxiv. 29, 30. 



THE BEIGHT AND MORNING STAE. 141 

ness shall fall upon the Church. The children of 
light shall be gathered before the throne, "And 
there shall be no night there ; and they need no 
caudle, neither light of the sun ; for the Lord God 
giveth them light : and they shall reign for ever and 
ever/'* 

* Eev. sxii. 5. 



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